The City of Light:Altered Reality
by Dylann K. Reed
Summary: Set in the episode "Perverse Instantiation: Part II" (3x16) Rather than Clarke entering a literal "City of Light" ALIE decides to show Clarke just a few alternate realities in which she could live in. (This is based off a story by a simple space nerd (with permission of course) So go check out their stuff! Hinting at Bellarke :)
1. Perverse Instantiation

**This is the prologue, it is really just scenes from Perverse Instantiation Parts I & II. Feel free to skip if you'd like but these scenes set the story up well. CREDIT for the plot/prompt goes to **a_simple_space_nerd **who is absolutely amazing, go check out their works! I just loved their OS called "What's Reality?" And I was given permission to run with the story a bit. So I hope you enjoy it! Please, please, _please_ comment! I love all reviews, the good, the bad, the ugly. :)**

 **Without further adieu...**

 **The City of Light:Altered Reality**

* * *

Clarke stares as Jaha, her former Chancellor and friend, assembles a noose out of thick double-bound rope.

Her attention is taken by her mother, who approaches her with a face void of any emotion.

"Don't be afraid," Abby tells her daughter, sweeping her golden hair behind her ear, "It's not for you."

Confused, Clarke's eyes trail over to where Jaha and Ontari have set the noose several feet above the ground. When Abby then walks to the noose, without hesitation, Clarke understands.

"No," Clarke whispered to herself, then her voice becomes demanding, "Mom. _Mom_. Stop, listen to me, I know you can hear me. Just stop." But Abigail grabs hold of the rope and hoists herself up onto a barrel.

"You know how to stop this," Abby retorted. She then pulls the rope securely over her head.

"Wait, ALIE," Clarke pleads, "If you kill her, you'll never get what you want." Abby is the one to respond, "ALIE's not killing me, you are." Clarke is crying now, she can feel the hot tears laying tracks on her cheeks.

"Mom, don't do this," Clarke begs, chin quivering, "Please."

"I'm begging you, don't do it. Please."

"What's the passphrase, Clarke?"

"I can't... I..." She stammers back. ALIE steps closer, head tilted, studying Clarke's words and actions.

"She'll break," ALIE announces, "Do it."

"No!" Clarke sobs and Abby kicks the barrel out from under her feet.

A loud **CLANK!** sounds from the elevator, and ALIE turns to Ontari ignoring Clarke's whimpering and Abby's choked gasps.

"They're here, I can't let them have you," ALIE informs Ontari.

"I understand," Ontari tells her, before picking up a fire-poker slowly.

A momentarily distracted Clarke raises her voice, "What are you doing?"

Ontari bends down on one knee.

"Wait, stop!" Clarke orders. Jaha is the one to receive the fire-poker from Ontari's grasp, "Jaha, don't do this. ALIE stop it. _Please_ , don't do this."

Jaha has already swung the fire-poker through Ontari's skull.

"Damage to her brain is substantial," ALIE announces, "but she is still alive."

At that moment, Bellamy and Murphy slam open the doors, guns in hand.

"Bellamy, stop him!" Clarke cries out, nodding towards Jaha. A gunshot rings out and Jaha grunts, collapsing to the floor. Murphy is already across the room, helping a near passive Abigail out of her noose. Jaha on the ground, Bellamy runs to Clarke, untying each point she is bound.

"Are you okay?" Bellamy asks her, but his words are drowned by Clarke's questions for Murphy.

"Is she alive? Is she breathing?"

"It's okay, she's breathing," Abby is gasping in deep breaths as Murphy calls back. Satisfied with Murphy's words, Clarke turns back to Bellamy.

"Jaha has the flame, get it." As Bellamy goes to Jaha, Clarke runs to kneel by Ontari.

"We cannot let Ontari die, we have to stop the bleeding." Murphy rushes to Ontari's other side.

"I got the flame," Bellamy says, dropping Jaha.

"Her pulse is weak," Clarke apprises.

"At least she's alive."

"Here, hold this to the wound," Clarke hands Murphy cloth.

"Come on, what are you going to do?" Murphy urges her, pressing to Ontari's skull.

Clarke is dumping out her sack, searching: "I need a flashlight."

"First we take out the chip, then we put in the flame," Bellamy instructs, as Clarke waves a flashlight to Ontari's eyes.

"Her pupils are unresponsive," Clarke groans, sitting back.

"What? What does that mean?"

Clarke shakes her head, looking up at Bellamy, "She's brain dead." Murphy feels his blood drain, his face goes pale.

"She can't give us the kill code. It's over," Clarke laments.

"We're trapped here," Murphy adds, frozen on the floor, as is Bellamy.

Clarke goes to her mother's side, and zaps the base of her neck with the EMP, draining the chip from Abby's brain. As she does so, Murphy and Bellamy leave to find Pike.

"Mom, can you hear me? I know you're in there. Come back to me. I need you." Abby's eyes flutter open and Clarke lets out a shaky breath in relief, "Hi."

Clarke pulls Abby to sit beside her and calms her as Abby weeps her apologies. When Bellamy and Murphy return with Pike, Bellamy raises his gun to Abby. Clarke shoves Abby behind her back, informing them that the chip has been drained.

"W-well, what about Ontari?" Murphy asked, "I thought you said we only had one shot with that thing."

Clarke stands to answer, "I told you, Ontari's no longer an option for the flame. She's brain dead. Is the floor secure?"

"For now," Bellamy replies, "Jaja and the guards are tied up in a bedroom."

"We took out the elevator and the ladder as we climbed," Pike adds, "The stairs are collapsed, no one is following us."

Reassured, Clarke purses her lips before speaking, "Good. Then we have time."

"What we don't have is a way down," Murphy quips, but Bellamy interrupts him.

"Time for what?"

"An ascension ceremony." She tells them.

"An ascension?" Murphy repeats, "You just said Ontari wasn't an option, besides, she's still chipped and we no longer have an EMP."

"We're not putting the flame in Ontari's head," Clarke agrees, "we're putting it in mine."

"Clarke," Bellamy walks to her, voice hushed, "that thing killed Emerson in seconds, liquified his brain."

"Emerson wasn't connected to a nightblood." Realization dawns on Bellamy's face joined with a sad look Clarke can't place.

"Transfusion?" Pike asks.

"Not exactly."

"Connected like Mount Weather," Abigail finishes for her daughter.

"Yes. Everything we need is in your tool kit."

"No. It's too dangerous," Abby reasons, "and there are too many variables."

"But no options."

Octavia comes racing around the corner, pulling away Clarke's attention.

"Whatever you're doing, you better do it fast," Octavia insists. Miller and his boyfriend Brian follow behind Octavia.

"Why? What happened?" Bellamy questions her.

"They're climbing," before Octavia finishes the word everyone is rushing to the balcony to see for themselves. It's true, hoards of people sprint to the tower shouting. Others have already begun to precariously scale the side of the building.

This time Abigail doesn't put up a fight, as Clarke and Murphy pull tubes and needles from her toolkit. She helps them hook Clarke to Ontari. The others aside from Bellamy take measure to ensure the safety of the room, such as greasing the balcony. Bellamy doesn't fight her decision either, instead, he takes his stance beside her, supporting her.

Bellamy and Abby watch as Clarke's blood, red and bright, travels to Ontari, and then Ontari's blood, black and menacing, travels to Clarke. Clarke's face is grave, and when she sees the black blood enter her arm her face pales.

"Hey," Bellamy grabs her attention, "try doing that hanging upside down." Clarke gives him a weary look for his attempt to help but turns to her mom.

"This will work."

"And if it doesn't?" Abigail begs. Murphy is the one to answer her in a dead tone.

"If it doesn't work, then she dies. If she doesn't try, then she dies with the rest of us, when the climbers get here." His morbid remarks do nothing to ease Abby's worries. Clarke, on the other hand, relaxes because of Murphy. His words reassure her that she is taking the right course of action. Strange enough, she can see that it has done the same thing for Bellamy. They were going to die. This is the only option, so why not die doing this instead?

A small part of her brain speaks up: because ALIE won't kill you gently- she'll make you suffer.

Clarke dismissed the thought: I am more than willing to bear that burden for my people.

Flame in hand, Murphy leans down beside Clarke and Bellamy, "Lean forward." Clarke drops her head and exhales shakily, reaching for Bellamy's hand with her own. He takes it immediately and squeezes it. She can't see his face but from above her Bellamy swallows. His eyes watch as Murphy moves the hair from Clarke's neck.

"You ready?" Murphy pauses.

"Yeah, do it."

"Ascende Superius," with those soft-spoken words, Murphy lowers the flame and it's glowing tentacles to her neck. She gasps as a sharp pain splits through her spine. Before she can even breathe the sharp pain becomes a burning. It isn't uncomfortable or distressing, it's unimaginable.

A scream rips from her lungs.

Then Clarke's vision goes black.

* * *

John knows the process of inserting the flame.

So when Clarke's scream pierces the air he is terrified for her. When she passes out he nervously watches her, but she is still breathing.

"She okay?"

"Her heart's racing," Abby looks John in the eye, "get that thing out of her head." John shakes his head, its minute, but its there. He may be worried about whatever is happening to Clarke right now, but its the only option. It is a survivor's move that drives his decision.

"I said, get that thing out of her head!" Abby screeches. The sound throws him back, this time he considers it. Lucky for him, Clarke has come to.

"No, no," she murmurs opening her eyes, "not yet."

"Are you in any pain?" Abby hold's Clarke's face with her hands.

"No, I'm okay. I know how to stop ALIE," John can see the look of revelation cast over Clarke's face, "I have to take the chip."

"What?" Bellamy's gruff voice asks, up till now he'd been silent in his worry.

"I have to go into the City of Light, and find the kill switch." Clarke's voice is sure, and she is looking past all of them, confidence radiating from her. John cast his eyes down and nods, his lips pursed, "Yeah that sounds like a great idea." He turns and walks away. _Fantastic_ , he thinks, _the princess has been driven batshit crazy by ALIE. There is nothing left waiting for us but death. So much for that theory._

But John's sarcastic remark gives Clarke no hesitation or pause. So Abby tries to dissuade her next. "Clarke, listen to me, ALIE wants the flame. If you take the chip you're giving it to her. The second someone sees you, ALIE is going to know that you're there. She'll kill you. If your mind dies, you die." With each word, the panic becomes more and more evident in her voice. But Clarke's eyebrows are furrowed, and she looks earnest as she responds.

"The flame will protect me."

Abby's face falls, but Bellamy gives Clarke a thoughtful look. He steps away from the pair as Clarke tells her mother, "I don't know how I know I just... know."

Bellamy picks up the light ice-blue chip and looks down at it considering it. He turns halfway to Clarke, "I believe you." She meets his gaze, and he steps up to her. Abby breathes in deep, eyes closed before trying once again to convince Clarke not to take the chip.

"Do you even know what you're looking for?"

"I'll know when I find it," Clarke tells her, eyes bright.

With sad eyes, Abby pulls Clarke in close and places a kiss on her forehead, "May we meet again."

"We will."

"We'll keep you safe," Bellamy says and Clarke turns to see him. He holds the chip out to her mouth and she lets him place it on the tip of her tongue. Eyes closed, she swallows.

And waits.


	2. Systems Analysis

Clarke breathes out and opens her eyes.

She's on the Ark. Not in her cell, she's on the couch, her Dad is next to her.

They are watching a soccer match from 2001 along with Wells and his father, Chancellor Jaha.

"Feel that? Feel that?" Jake Griffin says, slapping the pillow beside him in excitement, "See that? Here comes the momentum change."

"Defense!" Wells calls out, and Jaha backs him up.

"Defense is there."

"Serve it up," Jake calls before punching his fists in the air "Yeah!"

Jaha and Wells groan and voice their disappointments.

"Right here, kid," Jake says and Clarke feels a grin erupt on her face at his antics. She high fives him.

She jokes with Wells about the outcome of a game that happened 147 years prior.

"What'd I miss?" Clarke's mom asked with a smile as she walks through the door.

"Your husband and daughter being obnoxious," Jaha teases before turning back to the game.

Abby sneaks her arms around Jake before kissing his cheek, "SO I ran into Bennet as I was leaving the clinic and he has the Systems Analysis that you asked for." Jake excuses himself from the room to find Bennet, leaving the rest to cheer and groan over the soccer game.

Only this time, Jake is back before the game is even over. The tension is gone from his shoulders and he assures them all that it was a glitch in the system, everything is perfectly fine.

And it is.

Instead of having to tell Chancellor Jaha the Ark has only a year of oxygen, he gets to tell Jaha that Bennet has come up with a new system. One that will supply the Ark for a whole new century.

Abby never betrays Jake, because there is nothing to betray. Clarke never goes to solitary, she never blames Wells, and the 100 are never sent to Earth to die.

Clarke lives a full and happy life, alongside her father and mother. Over time, Jake Griffin becomes a well known and respected man for the new oxygen system he builds with Bennet.

"I hope you ladies are excited!" He yells after work, swinging open the door, "Chancellor Jaha is hosting a promotional party as a thank you."

Clarke grins and bear bugs her dad. Her mom joins them, and Clarke's heart is dull when she sees her parents look at each other with such love and devotion.

Abigail Griffin is already respected, for her work as a doctor. The respect and amazement increases as Abby discovers new medical procedures which increase the quality of life here in space.

"A toast," Jake declares at dinner once, "to the greatest doctor in history." Abigail laughs and swats at Jake, calling him absurd. Clarke beams when she sees the wink her dad gives her before yelling aloud, "The greatest doctor in history!"Abby clonks him in the head with a book and he fake being hurt.

Sad things still occur, for Clarke hears about the girl they found under the floor, whose mother is floated; but she never met the girl. She didn't know the mom or the brother. She doesn't think it is fair for the girl to be locked up for being born, but she trusts the council, she trusts her mom.

Clarke frequently plays chess with Wells in the cafeteria. This becomes one of her favorite times of the day. It is there that she overhears teenagers talk about the two underage boys who grow illegal plants and are sent in lockup. She rolls her eyes, idiotic kids.

"Checkmate!" Wells declares, and she glares down at her King as if it is the plastic piece's fault. Wells busts up laughing and Clarke laughs too, until her gut aches. Later Wells walks her to her room, and she lets him kiss her. Just once, soft and sweet. She would tease him about it the next day before she initiates the next kiss they share.

Clarke spends her time painting and drawing. Mostly of Earth, but lately she paints less and less. She becomes more interested in the Ark and its society and community. She starts to care more about becoming a doctor, rather than spending her time depicting forests and lakes she would never see. Clarke doesn't mind, she is happy here.

One day, as Clarke is making her way through the halls she hears a mechanic from Mecha station discussing a girl named after a bird; a raven. Apparently, her boyfriend had gone into lockup for going on a reckless spacewalk. When he turned eighteen the council voted for him to float, and the girl attacked a few guards. The girl was floated as well. Clarke frowns, the boy didn't deserve to die for that. They have plenty of air now. So she asks her mom about it at dinner. Abby hangs her head low.

"I agree, he was a sweet kid," she acknowledged, "the council made an example of him. We can't excuse behavior like that." Abigail raises her eyes to look into Clarke's, "We may have plenty of air now, for this generation. But generation 6 and 7 won't be as lucky as us, he wasted a month of oxygen carelessly." Clarke gulps. What her mom says makes sense. She turns to look at her father who puts his hand on her shoulder.

"It was a hard decision, kiddo. The council didn't come to the conclusion easily."

That night Clarke forgets about the girl and her boyfriend. Instead, she plays board games with Wells, Jaha, and her dad. Her dad even lets her drink a beer, though she doesn't want to again, the stuff tastes disgusting. Clarke sees Wells snorts beer out of his nose and she laughs so hard her eyes tear up.

"Gods Wells, drink much?"

Clarke trains and studies to become a doctor. With her mom's help, she is the youngest one to ace the medical exam. When she does, she comes home to a surprise party orchestrated by Wells.

"Wells!" She chastises him, "I hate surprises!" Wells just grins cheekily before stealing a kiss. He knows she doesn't really mind.

After the party, she doesn't want to go to bed. Which Wells had planned for. He shows her to her room where he has set up the projector. He even brought extra pillows and popcorn. They cuddle and watch classic chic-flicks like Dirty Dancing and Mamma Mia.

Wells pretends to hate them but he can't because Clarke is cuddling with him, and they end up kissing anyways.

"Wells," Clarke marches up to him one day, "When are you going to marry me?" He is so surprised by the question he chokes on his lunch.

"Uh-" Is all he can say and Clarke gives him a shrewd look before sauntering away.

"Make it soon, Wells?"

He does, only a week later he proposes to her on Unity Day, in front of everyone.

"Took you long enough, Wells," Clarke complains. He just smiles and kisses her.

When they have a little boy, Clarke goes to her mom about all her concerns. How to feed him, bathe him, take care of him in general. Wells and Clarke name the baby boy after Wells' dad, who passes away in his sleep, a heart attack. Baby Theo is all she could ever want.

The air is plentiful for now. It will continue to be even after her little Theo passes away. In another century the people will have worries again but in a century the ground is sure to be survivable.

She dies of old age, soon after followed by Wells.

* * *

 _"That's not what I want," Clarke snaps at ALIE, "That isn't real."_

 _ALIE considers Clarke a moment._

 _"You worry for the delinquents who died," ALIE concludes, "I have more options."_


	3. Abandoned by the Ark

_I can give you a world in which your delinquents live. One where the Ark never touches the ground. I can give you a world, where the culling never happens, Bellamy never takes the radio._

Clarke opens her eyes, breathes out, and sees Raven's ship.

On instinct Clarke races towards it. She rips open the door to see a groggy and barely cognizant Raven looking at her wearily. Clarke's eyes go wide, "Oh my-"

The radio in the ship cuts Clarke off.

"Pod one. Pod one. This is Ark Station Medical." Raven grabs the radio and responds.

"Yes, Sinclair. This is Raven Reyes, Mecha station. Are you reading me?"

"Loud and clear," the radio crackles. Clarke stares in awe at the radio as Raven tells Sinclair that Earth is survivable and she will keep in touch.

When Raven peels her suit off of her body, Clarke introduces her to Earth for the first time.

Raven is reveling in the rain when Finn arrives, and Clarke watches as Finn kisses Raven. She is shell-shocked and hurt. She is silent when they trek back to camp.

When they arrive, Bellamy is the first to great them.

"Hey Princess, how'd the hike go?" He goads, she just gives him a half-hearted smile.

"Great, meet Raven," She gestures to the brunette, "Raven meet Bellamy."

"Bellamy Blake?" Raven asks "They're looking everywhere for you."

"Shut up." He sneers, Clarke's face scrunches up.

"Looking for him, why?"

"He shot Chancellor Jaha," Raven explained.

"Jaja deserved to die and you all know that."

Raven snorts before replying, "Yeah he isn't my favorite person either, but he isn't dead." Shock and a look Clarke can only describe as fear clouds Bellamy's face.

"You're a lousy shot."

Murphy is the one to cut off the conversation, running up to the group at the camp's entrance.

"Clarke, you're needed in the dropship," Clarke glances once more at Bellamy before turning away and jogging with Murphy.

That night, Bellamy goes tent to tent, searching for Clarke.

"You're up?" He asks surprised when he finds her sitting in one.

"Yeah, Conner sprained his wrist I was just checking in." She tells him gesturing to Conner before she steps out of the tent.

"I need to speak with you," Bellamy states in a rough tone. Clarke agrees and the two make their way over to one of the bonfires which are now just dying flames and embers.

In this world, AlIE tells Clarke, there is no need for flares.

Here, Octavia never gets hurt, because she doesn't go after Bellamy.

Bellamy explains his position to Clarke. Shooting Jaha to come down with Octavia, under the direction of a guard. Clarke can understand that, somewhat.

"It's who you are, you protect your sister above all else." She smiles at him and makes her way to her own tent.

Finn tries to catch her as she does, his hair cut shorter. No doubt Raven's handiwork. Clarke glares at him and keeps on walking.

The morning after, she finds Raven in the dropship, talking to Sinclair. She sees Clarke and tells Sinclair she'll radio back soon enough.

"How it coming?" Clarke asks her and Raven grins.

"They are getting ready to tell everyone on the Ark Earth is survivable, they'll be down in no time." Clarke smiles slightly back.

Raven furrows her brows and considers Clarke's face, "Are you okay?"

Clarke breathes in slow, "Raven," she stops.

How do I even begin to tell her? She thinks.

"I didn't know about you, I didn't know that he had a girlfriend if I had-"

Raven eyes go wide as she realizes what Clarke is trying to say, and Clarke keeps going.

"As far as he knew you were dead, Raven. Or you would have been soon enough." The words feel awful in Clarke's mouth, but she charges on, "My mom too, and everyone we ever knew on the Ark, and th-there was nothing we could do to stop it."

Raven looks sick, but Clarke knows no words that could ease or fix what she's just said.

"Raven, I am so sorry, I am so-"

Before Clarke tries to say more, Raven's open palm smacks Clarke's face. Clarke stumbles back but doesn't retaliate. Instead, she carefully lifts her head to see Raven is tearing up

"He could have waited more than ten days," Raven's chin quivers. The brunette sits back in the chair next to the radio, and Clarke goes to leave the room.

"Do you love him?" Raven accuses, and Clarke thinks. She might've said yes, but Raven's comment runs in her head.

He could have waited ten days. She'd only met him ten days ago.

"I hardly know him," Clarke finally whispers back, before stepping out.

The next two days are odd. For the first, tension is tight and neither Raven, Finn, or Clarke say anything to one another. Clarke catches Raven shooting daggers at her a few times, and she lets it happen. What is even worse, is when she finds Finn staring at her several times. She starts to glare back when he does. No one else in the camp seems to care, they keep on joking and working like normal.

The second day, Clarke sits and eats lunch with Bellamy, though its more picking at her food than actually consuming it. He hadn't questioned her when she plopped herself down on the log beside him, and he still didn't question her or her untouched plate.

Guilt is set in the bottom of her chest, and she can do nothing but push the meat around and around with her fork. Nothing that is, until she sees Finn in line to get his own plate of food, his left eye swollen and a deep purple. Then to her left, Raven drops her self down next to her and starts eating. Clarke's eyebrows shoot straight up and she stares. After a moment, Clarke hesitantly starts to eat. It is Bellamy who breaks the awkward silence.

"Hell of a right hook there, Raven."

Raven bursts out laughing and Clarke can't help from snorting.

"Gross, Princess, you sound like a boar." Raven only laughs louder, and Clarke shoves Bellamy over.

"Aw, shut up."

It is weird, but it works. Clarke and Raven are still tense, but no longer does Raven glare. Finn stops staring at Clarke, too busy apologizing to Raven, and acting like a kicked puppy when she shoots him down.

A week following the first contact with the Ark, Clarke, Raven, and Bellamy are the only ones to hear the radio buzz in. It's her mom.

With a voice of regret and tears, Abby tells them that the fault in systems analysis had been corrected. Oxygen would last the Ark for at least another century and a half. The signal drops out after one last choked: "I'm sorry, Clarke."

Raven, Bellamy, and Clarke are left to stare at one another in shock. Raven screams in the radio, Bellamy punches a wall, but Clarke turns and walks calmly from the dropship. Bellamy follows behind and watches as Clarke yells.

"I was wrong, the Ark is not coming for us," Clarke announces to the delinquents that are left. She faces Bellamy, "You were right, we are alone." She turns back to the crowd of teenagers, her words strong and booming.

"That doesn't matter. We can make it on our own. We are survivors. We are free of Jaha, free of the council. Free to do 'whatever the hell we want!'" Clarke exclaims.

"We make our own rules here!" She finishes, and she is met with shouts and chants. Bellamy watches in a mix of pity and admiration as she repeats his own chant.

Minutes after, Bellamy goes up to Clarke and defensively she asks, "You said it first, now I am backing you up. He just shakes his head and gestures to his wrist that was now purpling.

"I think I sprained it," he reports and Clarke chuckles.

In time, they come across Lincoln. He introduces them to the clans.

Trikru threatens the delinquents when they meet on a bridge. Only this time, Clarke is able to form an alliance with Anya. When asked about her people in the sky, Clarke sneers and renounces them, telling the warrior her loyalty lies with the delinquents. Anya tests Clarke's declaration.

Anya brings out Charlotte, the youngest of the delinquents, and offers Clarke a deal.

"Swear loyalty, badon klin, to me and behead this yongon gada, this young girl. In return I offer peace." Clarke refuses. Before Anya can call off the treaty, Clarke bows before the grounder. Head low, chin to chest.

"My people will honor the treaty, take my head instead of the girls."

Anya unsheathes her sword and holds it high. Clarke prays that Bellamy won't act rashly and use the weapons she told him to. He does use them of course. He knicks the horse beside Anya and the horse rears before kicking Anya in the back.

"Ah!" Anya yells, dropping the sword. The warriors with Anya unsheathe their own weapons only to be quieted by a chuckling Anya.

"Loyalty both you and your hidden gonas have proven. You will visit Polis by my side." Clarke takes an eager Octavia with her the following morning, against Bellamy's orders. Nyko, Lincoln, and Anya accompany her and Octavia to Polis. When they arrive, Octavia and Clarke march through the center backs straight and chins high; per Lincoln's advice.

Clarke hears the people mutter, and their stares bore into her back.

She meets Leksa kom Trikru second to Anya, and Commander of the clans.

Clarke is granted a private audience with Lexa.

"I wish to serve loyalty to you, heda." Clarke bows to the woman, who must be the same age as herself.

Lexa keeps her bald advisor from attacking, and she accepts Clarke's show of fealty.

Octavia is with her when she is given the mark for the thirteenth clan: Skaikru.

Clarke learns what she can from Nyko, their healer, and Octavia spends her time with Lincoln. Clarke is nervous of Bellamy's reaction to Lincoln, but she catches Lincoln staring fondly after the wild sister any time the girl is not looking. Lincoln blushes and Clarke decides she likes him. During their trip, a man with a panic-stricken face breaks down a door and begs Nyko to save his son. Nyko rushes to a boy, as does Clarke, to a boy with blue lips. He isn't breathing, and his pulse eventually stops. Nyko bends over the boy to mutter the words of parting, but Clarke's hands are on the boy's chest in an instant. Octavia manages to hold back the father long enough for Clarke to get a heartbeat going, and Nyko stares in shock at the woman with gold hair. The father cries his thanks, nicknaming Clarke fisa. WHich she learns to mean healer. She teaches Nyko compressions and mouth-to-mouth before returning to the delinquent's camp with Octavia.

When Octavia and Clarke return with three horses, gifts from Leksa kom Trikru, the camp cheers. Clarke then explains the coalition and announces their clan name, Skaikru. Miller proposes their camp be named after their name, and Octavia proposes Skai-raun. To emphasize that though they are sky people, they have long since left the sky. The camp cheers once again, and Octavia beams at Clarke.

When the two women finish their speech, Bellamy stocks up to the two of them in anger. Octavia is surprised when he hugs her without yelling. The encounter is brief, however. As he then releases her and marches right up to Clarke. Gripping Clarke's wrist in one hand, he uses the other to shove her sleeve up the elbow to expose the scar she'd shown the camp proudly. The scar she'd received in Polis to mark the coalition.

Bellamy yells at her for her stupidity and Clarke tries pulling her arm away, glaring. He's still yelling when Clarke decides to give up an apologize.

"Alright, alright, Bellamy. I am sorry." His eyes are still narrowed.

"I am sorry for bringing Octavia, and I am sorry for letting them 'brandish my arm like I am cattle.'" Clarke tells him, quoting his own words previous bellowed in her face. She sees his face go softer. His hard and glaring eyes turn brown, sweet eyes full of concern. His arms wrap around Clarke just as they did Octavia and Clarke freezes. Partially because Bellamy was going to kill her with the pressure of his hug, and partially out of shock for the action.

"I am sorry for leaving," she adds quieter when she returns the embrace.

She sees Octavia wink at her as she does so, and her face flushes red.

Octavia helps her burn the new camp name into the dropship. Skai-raun.

With the excitement over their newly named camp, Skaikru becomes a hard-working people. They expanded their territory where Leksa allowed and their borders became Woods Clan, Ice Nation, Rockline, and Blue Cliff. Their territory was smaller than those other three, but Skair-raun didn't have a need for more. The teenagers all helped build cabins. The cabins are small and looked more like huts than cabins, but they are a shelter.

Furs and moss are gathered for bedding, and furniture is fashioned from birch trees.

At night every few days, they gather to stay up late around fires. These are Clarke's favorite times. She often falls asleep before she can head off to her bed and when she does, its Bellamy who wakes her up to go to bed.

"Princess," he calls in a whisper. That alone is enough to wake her.

"Oh, thanks, Bellamy," she says to him groggily.

She stretches her back and helps him to wake and send off all the others to their cabins before she waves him goodnight.

The drop shift is officially the med bay, and it's been cleaned and reorganized to do so. Murphy becomes her designated helper/student. He has a knack for the stuff.

At one point Clarke takes Murphy and Octavia with her for a three-day hike lead by Nyko, Lincoln, and a man by the name of Atticus. They gather herbs, and Clarke learns what she can of the sicknesses and antidotes that are most common.

Nyko shows them a waterfall where they collect a moss that grows under it. It isn't red like the moss she collects from the river near the camp, though it is similar. This moss is darker and less like hair, it grows like pine needles. "The moss," Nyko explains, "is used for high fevers. You burn it, and it eases the bodies' temperature. Clarke doesn't understand how that could possibly help. But she takes as much as she can nonetheless.

She also sketches the waterfall as they take a break.

It comes in handy, Clarke finds soon enough. When they return home she finds half the camp is sick, and many are running fevers. To Octavia's dismay, her brother is among them. Nyko helps her in the med bay for an hour or two before he rides back to Polis. Clarke and Murphy burn a fourth of the moss they had collected, and they both spend the day cooling the teenagers' foreheads.

Clarke learns from Bellamy that they'd found turkeys, a ton of them. They'd wrangled up a few and cooked some. Clarke's best guess for the vomiting and fevers was food poisoning.

Clarke tells Murphy to take a break when she sees him trying to keep from yawning. He's hiked for three days and been on his feet all day helping. He argues that 'so has she,' but he doesn't seem to mind her orders when he leaves and crashes in his shared cabin.

Rotating whos she sits next to, Clarke draws several of her patients while she renews their wet cloths. Eventually, she ends up next to Bellamy and starts drawing him. She looks back and forth at Bellamy's face and her sketch and is nearly finished when she looks up to see he is awake.

Blushing lightly for having been caught drawing the man, Clarke waits for him to speak first. That doesn't work, however, as he just blinks and stretches before resuming his position.

"How are you feeling?" She breaks the silence, he groans and just mumbles 'fine' before peering at her drawing.

"Are you going to finish?" He inquires, and Clarke blushes harder. Pencil to paper, she finishes her sketch and when she does he holds out a hand to take the pad from her. Hesitantly she does give it to him.

"Hmm," is all Bellamy says to his picture, and he flips through the pages she's done of the others. He stops at the sketch of the waterfall and studies that one closely.

"Incredible," he mutters. She isn't sure if it is for the sketch or the waterfall, she doesn't ask. He turns the page and it's a picture of Lincoln and Octavia sitting together. Clarke tenses up, but he doesn't comment. He looks at a few more before turning back to the page she's drawn of him. Rather than drawing the patients as sleeping, she's given them each an expression. Murphy was in their too, smirking. Bellamy's face was drawn in a grin. He was looking up and the sun brightened up his freckles.

He hands the pad back, and they end up talking about the moss she is burning in the corner by a went.

They have been on the ground for five months.

The mornings are cold enough that when she breathes out, Clarke can see her breath in a cloud of white. Most everyone's noses and ears are pink and everyone is bundled up. They spent the last four weeks drying out meat for the winter, and yesterday they had finished up the twenty-first cabin. Much of that work is thanks to Lincoln, who becomes an ambassador of Trikru and stays with Skai-raun. He teaches them the preparations Trikru.

When they are done, each cabin holds between four to five people and they are split so that the girls are together and the guys are together. There are more guys by a large number, so most of the cabins belong to the guys. The last cabin is where they store their dried meat and other resources. That cabin always has a guard on it, as well as the front gates of the camp.

"It's amazing progress," Clarke tells the people, "we have done well. The next two to three months will be hard. We'll need to ration. Everybody eats, but only what you absolutely need. We share the furs, we have enough now from trading with Trikru so everyone will get a few."

When Clarke talks to Bellamy about the cabins and food storage numbers, he grimly tells her: "It'll have to do."

With the winter comes snow and the people in the camp become friendlier and friendlier, snuggling to keep warm. Winter also brings constant colds, and sometimes worse. Clarke is kept busy in her med bay.

That is where Bellamy finds her when he comes storming in. She is washing her hands, scrubbing as best as she can and she is startled by his stomping feet. His face is set in irritation and he goes on to rage about Lincoln.

"Bellamy, what on Earth brought this on?" Clarke questions him. He just continues to glare at nothing so she tries a different approach.

"You like Lincoln, you work well with him. Not to mention the cabins and food that Lincoln has taught up to prepare." Clarke reasons. Bellamy huffs but seems to simmer down a slight bit so she continues to explain to him all the things Lincoln has done for them these many months. Things she knows Bellamy knows.

She catches on halfway through their conversation, or at least halfway through his second rant. Many couples have popped up around camp; snuggling to "keep warm." Clarke learns that Lincoln and Octavia are one of them.

"Bellamy," she chuckles, "you're being ridiculous." That earns her a hard look. "Lincoln is a great guy. You know it too."

He is staring at her, still breathing hard, chest heaving, "As for Octavia, well, she's done plenty of maturing as head of our hunting parties."

The best way Clarke could describe his eyes would be crackling. His brown eyes burn, and there is tension in the air. Clarke wonders if he can feel it too, or if she is imagining it. Either way, she ignores it.

"Those two level one another. They center one another, keep each other grounded, work together. Protect one another." Clarke isn't certain she was talking about Lincoln and Octavia anymore. But Bellamy is calm by now, and their conversation drifts until they are discussing new methods for transporting water.

A month after that Skai-raun is at the peak of winter when the other Blake sibling comes racing into the med bay. Octavia is squealing when she finds Clarke treating Monty of the flu. Murphy takes over for her and Clarke grins as Octavia recounts her moment with Lincoln before showing off the iron loop that has been hammered somewhat melted into a ring.

They celebrate around a bonfire that night, and Octavia grabs Clarke at one point to dance around the fire to the jig that the Skaikru chant. Afterward, Lincoln finds the time to sit beside her.

"Thank you," he tells her earnestly, and she doesn't bother pretending not to know why.

Instead, she smiles at him, "You're good for her, Lincoln. Now go dance with her!" She shoves him over. Clarke grins watching Lincoln step in and dance awkwardly with his wild fiance. Most all of her people are dancing with, a few are sitting back and chanting or cheering.

Bellamy takes Lincoln's seat next to Clarke and they both sit and watch the celebration.

Octavia is smiling more, with Lincoln as her constant companion; which makes Bellamy smile more often. He makes Clarke laugh more and in turn, the camp is a happier place as a whole. It's a victory all around.

Spring comes, though not soon enough. Not long after Lincoln's proposal the camp has gotten sick. Really sick. Clarke and Murphy get hit the worst.

It starts off soft. Monty had been one of the few to get it first but it left kick as it came. Then those who hadn't gotten sick all winter came in with coughs, headaches, runny or stuffy noses. Clarke and Murphy worked around the clock to break those fevers.

It is tiring.

Clarke wakes and she aches all over, she can see that Murphy does too as his movements are jerky.

"Murphy," Clarke calls, and she rests her hand on his forehead, it is hot.

"You need to lay down. No more work for you. drink as much as you can," she orders. Murphy doesn't complain, now it is just her.

Her people aren't getting better. As much as Clarke wants to send for Nyko, she knows she can't. It's storming outside, has been for three days now. The biggest issue is, she knows she has a fever too.

She doesn't remember anything concrete after sending Murphy to lay down. Clarke recalls someone calling her name, then shouting. She remembers opening her eyes to find herself on a cot, she is sweating all over, but she's freezing. Clarke isn't sure at what point it happens, but she also remembers Bellamy and Murphy arguing.

"She isn't doing any better, Murphy!"

"I know that! Don't you think I know that?"

"You aren't even doing anything," Bellamy seethes.

"I'm not doing anything? Are you joking? I am doing everything! How are you helping?"

"If you were helping, she would be getting better," Bellamy growls back.

"I only learned so much before she got sick! I am doing the best I can-"

"Well, it isn't good enough!" Bellamy practically screams back.

When she sees that, Clarke gets up to chastise him for yelling at Murphy.

"Clarke!" Bellamy shouts when she collapses.

The next time she wakes up, Bellamy is next to her. His face is one of exhaustion and relief.

"Morning, Princess," Bellamy smiles.

"Hi," Clarke croaks back.

"You gave me quite a scare for a minute there," he says softly. She doesn't react to him saying 'me' rather than 'us.'

"I'm sorry," she apologizes. She doesn't berate him for yelling at Murphy.

Who, Clarke sees enter from behind Bellamy. Bellamy takes that as his leave and she is left with Murphy.

They don't say much, he does tell her: "He sat next to you the whole time." She apologizes on Bellamy's behalf- for yelling at him.

"He worries," John tells her.

"I'm okay now, he won't need to anymore."

John looks at her and repeats himself. Clarke is at a loss for words.

Spring brings life, unlike in the previous season. Snow melted and in its place, Skai-raun grows crops. They build more cabins so that space will not be so tight. Lincoln and Octavia manage to convince everyone that they deserve to have their own cabin.

It takes a week, but eventually, Bellamy lets her go on an herb hike. Clarke hates to say that he allows her to do anything. But just this once she cuts her slack.

"I'm going out, watch the camp," Clarke announced the day she was walking around camp.

"No," Bellamy had commanded. Clarke immediately ruffled, spinning around to glare.

She was prepared to argue, "Bellamy we need-" but when she saw his face she dropped her words. His looked worn, vulnerable.

"No," He'd repeated quieter, "Just wait, please," His voice had cracked on the pleading word. So Clarke let him take her pack, and she let him walk her to her shared cabin. They didn't talk, and when they got there, Bellamy had regained composure.

Truth be told, that broken look had shaken her. If waiting a week for her to collect plants was what he needed, that was simple enough to do.

This time she didn't tell Bellamy to watch the camp.

Clarke steps into his cabin, to where Bellamy is talking with Monty.

"We need to forage, I am going to put Octavia and Raven in charge of the camp," Clarke states, "When can you be ready?"

Bellamy pulls his jacket on and grabs his pack by the door, "Let's go."

Clarke waves to Monty and talks to Octavia and Raven before meeting Bellamy at the gate. He has only one of the horses with him. Before she asks Bellamy tells her that one of the three horses is pregnant, and he didn't want to leave the camp without a horse.

He reaches down, and she grabs his forearm, swinging a leg up behind him.

They ride bareback, so Clarke digs her heels into the stallion and places her hand on Bellamy's sides. When the horse picks up speed, Bellamy pulls her wrists so that Clarke is hugging him from behind. She tells him they are heading to the waterfall he'd seen in her sketches, and she directs him where to lead the horse.

Clarke and Bellamy follow the river upstream, which is handy because the horse they are on drinks plenty during their breaks. They stop before Clarke wants to, but with only one horse Bellamy doesn't want to tire the horse out too much. He finds an area with plenty of coverage, though it's tight. It isn't cold, but they build a fire for light.

When the sun is gone, the night becomes windy. It hadn't been cold before, but it is now. The fire is long gone, killed by the breeze. Neither of them can sleep, yet both lay and feign it. Bellamy doesn't hear Clarke get up, but he feels it when she lays down right next to him. His eyes pop open.

"Is this okay?" Clarke inquires and he doesn't answer right away. She looks like she's about to back off when Bellamy pulls her in even closer to his side so that he's hugging her.

"Is this okay?" He asks her and he feels her nod.

Bellamy isn't sure he is helping, as Clarke entire body is trembling. Really, he thinks, it's making him even colder. But it must help because her shakes subside and she does fall asleep.

Its twittering that wakes Clarke. She can see the culprits, flying to and from trees above her. Then she realizes she isn't facing Bellamy anymore, at some point she had turned around. Clarke could still feel him though, pressed against her back, an arm slung over her side. His breathing is long and she can feel everytime he breathes out. If she was honest with herself, she wouldn't mind staying there until he woke up on his own, but Clarke is anxious to get back on the trail.

Using an elbow, she lifts herself just enough to turn back over so that she's facing Bellamy. His arm subconsciously tightens around her and once again Clarke is tempted to sleep a few minutes more.

"Bellamy," she whispers, but he doesn't wake. So carefully she extracts his arm from her waist and stands. Clarke walks over to their horse and leads it only a few yards over to drink. From one of their packs, she feeds the stallion before bringing the horse back to Bellamy and tying it up.

As she finishes up brushing him down, she hears a drawn-out yawn and looks to see her co-leader as he stretches. Clarke can hear a few satisfying pops as he rolls his neck.

Today Bellamy lets her ride up front, they don't mention the previous night.

At one point he had made her stop so he could throw her hair into a tight but messy plait.

"Your hair is getting all up in my face," he grumbles.

Honestly, it makes sense that he can braid, having had a sister and a mom as his only family. Now her braid is tucked in her jacket, and they are only a quarter of a mile from the waterfall, she's sure.

It's distracting, Bellamy sitting behind her. She can feel his chest against her back, similar to how they woke up this morning. It was an action that made sense Clarke knows, to bundle close to one another. Still, she can't help a blush from crawling up her neck to her cheeks. Clarke is thankful Bellamy can't see her red face.

They reach the waterful in the afternoon. Bellamy recognizes it instantly from Clarke's sketch. She shows him the moss to collect and they gather less than a quarter of whats there. Once their packs are full, Bellamy sets them next to their horse and he hikes down to the pool in which the waterfall is emptied into. He plunges into the water, and Clarke follows after a moment's hesitation. They find that underneath the waterfall is a cleft. It only has room for the two of them if they press their backs against the wall and stand side by side.

"Incredible," Bellamy yells over the sound of crashing water. Clarke grins as her response and she is about to duck out when Bellamy grabs her wrist and puts a finger over his lips. Which is pointless, because even his yell was barely audible over the sound of the waterfall. He points to the woods. It takes her a second, but she sees. A moose steps out into the sun, it's antlers are enormous. It looks at Bellamy and Clarke's horse before stepping into the pool. The magnificent creature bows its head to drink, and as it does so a calf makes itself known. Promptly following the bull's example it stomps into the water and dunks its own head in to drink. With bright and excited eyes, Clarke looks up to meet Bellamy's own awed expression.

It isn't minutes later that the two moose leave. The bull's graceful steps unmatched by the calf's uncoordinated stumbling. Bellamy and Clarke duck out and pack the remainder of their things before riding out; Clarke once again in front. They don't ride long, most of the day had been spent in the water. A new spot is discovered and while Bellamy leads the horse to drink Clarke pulls her sketchpad out from her pack. She draws the moose, their images distorted by the wall of water in between them and her and Bellamy. She hums as she works.

Bellamy returns and ties up the horse before joining Clarke on the ground. A pack is pressed up against the tree trunk, the sketchpad laid on her thighs. Placing his pack next to her, Bellamy takes a seat adjacent to her and he watches for a while as she shades in trees to surround the pool and the moose. But Bellamy is tired from getting even less sleep than Clarke so he lays down, his head on Clarke's shins. He doesn't fall asleep yet, he chats with her.

"What got you into drawing?" She doesn't answer immediately, taking the time to shade in the back legs of the calf.

"I'm not certain, it may have been my dad," she recalls, "he would pretend to critique my drawings ever since I was five, or maybe six. He would praise them more than criticise them. So I did it more often, I got good at it."

She finishes her sketch of the moose and flips the page. Pencil to paper, she starts on a new one.

"In solitary it was all I did. Draw. I could spend a whole day on one sketch. Partially because I knew I would run out of wall space if I drew too many a day, partially because I wanted to get them just right."

"What'd you draw?" Bellamy asks her.

"Before, I drew people more than anything. Anyone who was around, really," she pauses to study Bellamy's face.

"After I was put in solitary I drew places, places on Earth. The pyramids, forest, lakes. I drew wildlife, animals, and plants. I drew what I knew from Earth skills, which was mostly plants."

Bellamy doesn't ask any more questions. Just watches her press her lips in a tight line and furrow her brow. Every minute or two, her heavy scrutinizing gaze would flick to his face then back to her paper. Bellamy figures it's him, and he asks to see it when she's done. She grimaces but shows him nonetheless.

That night they settle down next to one another. Tonight isn't windy, so it isn't necessary, but neither point that out. Rather than hugging her, Bellamy lets her put her head on his chest. They fall asleep quicker than the previous night.

It takes another day to get home. In fact, it takes them well into the third night before they get home. The moon is high in the sky when they see the front gates. The guards on duty are Trina and Pascal. It is nice, Clarke thinks, to sleep on thick furs and moss again. But she misses having someone pressed beside her while she dozes off. It was comforting, laying with Bellamy.

Weeks pass Skai-raun by. Following Octavia and Lincoln's lead, Monty proposes to Harper. Raven mutters to Clarke that at this rate, the camp needs to generate a cabin a week for the couples. Raven doesn't really mind, Clarke knows. In fact, Finn seems to have made headway in apologizing.

Skai-raun opens its gates to a group of traveling grounders. Skaikru gathers during meals to listen with rapt attention as a woman describes her tales of Ice Nation to the North. A world where cold is the every lasting day norm and violence is a never ceasing companion. The oldest man, Briyon, whose face is wrinkled and hair is nothing but whisps, tells his tales of plains that stretch for days, far off in the East.

"Past Ouska-maun and Bouda Tayon, the nulif graun kigon feva," Briyon tells them, sighing as he recounts his old home.

Lincoln translates for us: Past the Blue Cliffs and Rock Line, the plains stretch on for days.

The last traveler speaks of warm sands down south, not like the barren wasteland Northeast of Trikru.

Clarke is fascinated and quizzes the grounders for hours. He feet ache to join them and experience the ground alongside them. Her fingers itch for the potential drawing material these travelers could provide. Briyon gives her enough detail to create an image of the blue cliffs (or Ouska-maun.) He gets so excited about the sketch he has her draw his plains back home, as well as a beach with nothing but ocean ahead.

In the firelight, she catches Bellamy's eye and her heart rate slows. His frown is enough to let Clarke guess that he has an idea of what she's thinking. Of course, Clarke wouldn't leave her people. It was exciting to consider the possibilities of wandering and exploring, yes. But this is home for Clarke. She smiles at him, and he visibly eases.

She gets up after talking with Briyon and sits where she can lean on Bellamy's shoulder. A warm feeling sets in her chest. As the travelers sing deep into the night of places far and wide. Those places stay in her mind, but it isn't so bad. Bellamy's arm ends up around her middle.

Clarke travels to Polis again. This time with Bellamy. The people sneer as she holds her head high, and Bellamy duplicates her show of strength.

There are two assassination attempts.

The first attempt is the day they arrive. As Clarke walks from vender to vender, she shows Bellamy all of Polis. Incredible. Bellamy thinks. Clarke seems to agree. She smiles as he tries the food, and laughs, when he seems to dislike it. That is when it happens. A knife hurdles through the air towards Clarke.

A grounder, who has watched Clarke since she arrived, seizes an open opportunity, the moment her guards are far enough away, as well as Clarke's friends, and the grounder is sure they cannot help her, that is when he strikes.

It doesn't catch her. Octavia had already spotted the man. She bulldozes Clarke over in the nick of time and the man is caught. Surprised, Clarke thanks the dark-haired warrior.

The second attempt is even more public. Leksa kom Trikru calls a congregation, and Clarke claims a seat as the thirteenth clan. Bellamy is behind her as they stand before a feast, awaiting Lexa's words and watching as other clans file in.

When everyone is inside, Octavia offers the commander Lexa a bottle of whiskey, "Please accept our gift, Heda. We drink this for special occasions. I believe this qualifies."

Lexa nods. Her guard Gustus retrieves the bottle and places it in Lexa's hands.

"Thank you, Okteivia kom Skaikru."

The commander turns to address Clarke and offers that they drink together. Clarke accepts and takes a cup. Before either drink, Gustus sips from Lexa's cup as a precaution.

Moments later as Lexa is speaking, Gustus collapses unto the table.

"It's poison," Gustus croaks. In an instant, Bellamy's hand slaps Clarke's cup away. Indra draws her sword, accusing them all.

"You have to know this wasn't us!" Clarke begs Lexa. The grounders around them restrain her people and search them up and down.

"Gustus warned me about you, but I didn't listen," Lexa sneers.

As one of the grounders searches her person, Clarke continues, "Lexa, please."

"Heda," Gustus interrupts holding out a vial of orange liquid.

Raven fights her captors, "That's not mine! I'm telling you that is not mine! He put it there when he searched me!" Raven accuses.

"No Skayon leaves this room," Lexa demands, marching out along with most others.

When Lincoln attempts to speak for them, defend them, Indra closes the gate on him as well.

It is Nyko who reopens the gate. Accompanied by Indra and a few others.

"How's Gustus?" Lincoln asks.

Nyko responds curtly, "Gustus will live."

"Teik daun plangona," Indra commands, and her guards approach Raven.

"Wait. Wait! What are you doing?" Clarke demands

Bellamy steps in front of his sister, "She didn't poison anyone!"

"I argued for all of you to die," Indra cuts, " but the commander is merciful. She wants only one."

"She is innocent," Lincoln growls.

"I. Don't. Care." Indra bites back, "They move, they bleed."

Only after Lincoln, Finn, and Clarke have knives to their throats are they able to get a hold of Raven. Clarke can feel the cold metal dig into her neck and warm blood trails down.

"The rest of you are free. When she is dead, so is the alliance. You should run."

Raven screams, and in the same moment it clicks for Clarke

It wasn't in the bottle.

She marches out the door and as she does so Bellamy blocks her shouting demands, "Clarke, stop, you'll get yourself killed!"

She brushes past him, "I need that bottle now." Nyko leaves to fetch it and Clarke raises her voice to yell, "Stop!"Everyone pauses, and Lexa commands her guards allow Clarke to pass.

"One of your people tried to kill you, Lexa, not one of mine." Indra steps forward leering.

"You should have run."

Clarke ignores the warrior, "I can prove it."

Nyko hands her the bottle she and Lexa had shared and uncaps it. Before Bellamy know what is happening, Clarke drains a large portion down her throat. For a tense moment, no one moves or even breathes.

Then, "Explain," Lexa commands.

"The poison wasn't in the bottle. It was in the cup."

"A trick, Heda," Gustus advises, "do not be ponk klin."

With that remark, Bellamy connects the missing pieces, "It was you."

Bellamy lists his evidence, "He tested the cup, he searched Raven."

"Gustus would never harm me," Lexa claims.

Bellamy agrees, "Yes, but you weren't the target. The alliance was."

"We didn't do this, and you know it," Clarke adds.

"Yu fingadon, Gustus. Hola au," Lexa commands Gustus. ( You have been accused, Gustus. Speak true.)

"This alliance would cost you your life. I could not let that happen," Gustus regretfully admits.

"This treachery will cost you yours."

Raven is set down, per Lexa's instructions, and Gustus takes her place on the post.

After the attempts on Clarke's life as well as Lexa's, people stop sneering as she passes. Remarkably, Bellamy is warming up to Polis and its culture as well. He even accepts a flower from a young Wodakru girl, who offers it to him with a shy smile.

Clarke sees Finn and Raven laughing and smiling when he sneaks her a kiss on the cheek. It hurts, but not much. Her smile drops.

Bellamy catches her change in composure when seeing the happy pair and so slips his flower in her hair, tucked behind her ear along with her golden hair. Clarke smiles wide.

The moment is over when Octavia bursts up in raucous laughter.

"Big brother, you've gone sweet to the 'Princess' now?" She accuses snorting. She is hit in the face with a different flower, thrown by Lincoln. Octavia steps away sheepishly after Lincoln's retaliation for ruining Clarke and Bellamy's moment.

Bellamy doesn't seem thrown at all by Octavia or her words. His smile grows softer, and Clarke blushes much more. Though she is not certain why.

Summer is amazing. The season brings life, and Clarke is content to draw most days. Beautiful. The landscape sings. It has plentiful colors, wildlife, and people. She fills up two sketchpads. Then a third along with 7 pencil stubs.

Summer is fun. The kids spend their everyday day working and every other day in the lake. Clarke thinks she and Murphy could treat sunburns and heat exhaustion in their sleep. Murphy even takes on a new apprentice, as does Clarke. Monroe and Myles.

Summer is dangerous. Octavia sprains her ankle hunting and Conner cracks a rib trying to climb a tree. Senselessly. Clarke wasn't surprised. There are more injuries some form hunting parties, scouting ones, or foraging. Those aren't the worst. Some are far more painful and terrible.

The hunting party, lead by Octavia and Lincoln, decides it may be time to try fishing, a task that results in an eel tearing open Octavia's foot, Roma losing an ear by the same slick monster, and Dax's non-eel related death.

Octavia's mangled foot takes more time to sew up than Clarke would have liked and the amount of blood loss Octavia went through was terrifying.

Not two days following that incident, Monroe comes into the dropship bleeding profusely from her head. Drew is holding her up, and he tells Clarke about the accident.

"She thought it would be a good floating idea to climb a tree on our scouting trip."

"It wasn't my fault," Monroe protests halfheartedly.

"Right, it was the tree's fault for dropping you," Drew snaps.

"Drew, you can go now," Clarke dismisses him, "Thank you."

He scoffs but hands her off.

"I am going to be a suture prodigy if you all keep bringing me injuries like this," Clarke mutters after she's finished. She was careful about fixing the nasty cut on Monroe's face, but it was sure to leave a messy scar.

The following month isn't so bad. There are still injuries and Clarke gets patients every other day. It's exhausting. At this rate, Clarke is sure that her, Murphy, Monroe, and Myles will have done a billion stitches combined. She learns that Monroe is slow but her stitches are neat, Murphy is useful in emergencies as his stitches are messy but functional and fast, Myles is slow and so sloppy Clarke has to redo a few. That was a terrible experience for John Mbege. Clarke tries to keep Myles on other tasks.

One afternoon, there is a lull in patients. The inactivity is nice but it is sure to bring something worse. Bellamy must have noticed Clarke's itchy hands and worried face because he convinces her to go on a foraging trip with him, just for a few hours.

"Thanks, Bell," She sighs as they walk.

"You needed a break, you've needed one for a while now." He tells her.

They keep up the small talk for a while as they collect various plants. Clarke is so preoccupied in her talk that she doesn't see Bellamy go completely still. She rambles on a sentence or two to see his panic-stricken face staring ahead. Clarke turns to see it. A black panther, large in stature, is haunched not thirty feet away. Bellamy doesn't have his gun. It was lying behind him, with his pack.

It is closer to Clarke, and maybe that is why she lunges for it. The cat immediately zeroes on her and pounces but Bellamy jumps in its way. He and the panther are on the ground when Clarke pulls the trigger, hitting the cat's backside. It stumbles off of Bellamy and Clarke puts another bullet in its head.

She rushes to Bellamy's side. He is bleeding from three deep raking scratches and one shallower scratch.

"Bellamy, you idiot," Clarke half-growls, half-cries. She grits her teeth and pulls out her med kit. She'd only brought her smallest pack since this was only going to be a short trip.

"Just looking out for you, Princess," Bellamy chokes. Shooting a watery glare at him, Clarke puts pressure on his chest as best she can. The only way to get him to camp is to carry him, and that is a task Clarke isn't sure how to handle.

How she does it, Bellamy will never understand. From what he's told, she had stitched him up when the bleeding was under control, and she'd carried him back. Miller and Drew had been at the gate when they heard and saw her. The two men took Bellamy from her and shouted for another guard to help Clarke who was also bleeding from a mangled leg.

"Well crap," Murphy had muttered when Bellamy was brought in, he was slipping in and out of consciousness.

When Clarke was brought in behind Bellamy Murphy cursed.

"Are you kidding me right now, Griffin?"

"Sorry John," Bellamy heard her respond.

It took a week for Clarke's leg to scab over and Murphy declared her released. Bellamy, on the other hand, took much longer. Due to the poor stitching job Clarke had done, Murphy had had to redo most of her work. Then it got infected and Bellamy had a fever for days.

After he was up and around, Clarke would try to apologize but Bellamy would tell her she was being ridiculous. It happened almost any time she saw his chest.

"Bellamy," she started. He cut her off.

"Clarke! For space's sake would you quit it? I don't want to hear it from you!" He'd snapped at one point. After that, she stopped trying to say sorry. He'd felt bad immediately after snapping, but in all fairness, she was being ridiculous.

Summer comes to an end. Autumn peeks its head around the corner and Skaikru takes another trip to Polis. There, Clarke meets Prince Roan of Azgeda.

This trip, it is Clarke, Octavia, Lincoln, Monroe, and Miller. Neither Murphy or Bellamy had been happy about being left behind, Bellamy demanded Clarke bring Nathan Miller.

Clarke buying a sweater from a vendor when she hears the clang of metal on metal. She spins in place to see Monroe's lips turned in a snarl.

They each take turns swinging their swords. Monroe is sloppy though light on her feet and Roan is the exact opposite. Monroe is the first to fall to her knee and Clarke steps in. Roan gets a few good hits in, as does Clarke, they both seem to come to an understanding when Roan falls to his knees and Clarke lends him a hand up.

She decides, as she shakes his hand, she likes the banished prince. They part on good enough terms.

Trees are all sorts of hues now. Browns and reds and yellows and orange. Skai-raun stocks up on dried meat. Clarke gifts Bellamy the sweater she bartered for in Polis, not for any particular reason or cause, he uses it often and he smiles at her soft and often, Clarke smiles back. She spends those brisk mornings sipping tea by Nate, who is never without his new beanie wool beanie and matching gloves. The sketchpad is full of the youngest kids, all pink noses and rosy cheeks.

Two years pass from when Skai-raun first arrives. The village is completed with cabins and people relax. It's nice. The med bay has new apprentices as well. Murphy and Clarke no longer drown in work, due to the new training medics and the wised-up teenagers. Injuries are few and far between. John joins Clarke on her trips to see Nyko in TonDC. Sometimes they bring things for him, sometimes Nyko informs them of new issues or sicknesses, Bellamy stops glaring at Indra with each visitation.

The Skayon people get tattoos based on their victories. Clarke has one that trails up her forearm and around her shoulders. Healer. It tells those around her. She gets another one a year later, it sits on the back of the opposite shoulder, a symbol which represents descending from the skies.

The day they see an enormous meteor fall people scream, it is miles away from Skai-raun but they still see the explosion. From the size of it, nothing could have survived. Clarke doesn't shed a tear. There is no doubt in her mind that it was the Ark, the star she would occasionally look for is gone. Bellamy puts his arms on her shoulder and her breath catches, he is reminded of her strength when he sees her careful actions calm her people.

But he knows she feels the loss when she chops her hair to just inches above her shoulders. He makes it a point to tell her it looks lovely.

The following year they honor their people. Abandoning the kids on the ground and cutting off all connection doesn't change the fact that they were family and friends. Once. They burn a fire that reaches the height of the cabins, and Bellamy leans against Clarke. In the last year, he has gained more marks to his arms and legs, nothing as big as the ridges across his chest. He slips his hand into Clarke's calloused one and squeezes.

That year bring new life, new love. Monroe beams when she tells Clarke of the pretty grounder girl and Octavia cries when she tells Clarke of the morning sickness.

"Clarke I don't know how to do this," the otherwise scary woman whimpers.

"You will be amazing, Lincoln too," Clarke calms her, holding her and rubbing the panicking woman's back.

Clarke even chuckles, "Goodness knows the kid will be a fighter having your genes." That seems to help as Octavia gives a shaky laugh of her own.

Truth be told, Clarke is terrified. The risks were innumerable and Clarke had no experience with handling these things. She knows Bellamy is terrified as well, no doubt more so. Lincoln's jaw is twice as big as before and multi-colored to boot, Clarke treats his face, as well as Bellamy's bleeding knuckles. He is fuming. But Clarke knows that no words or jokes would help this Blake sibling so she let him stew.

Willow is strong, a real fighter. Octavia couldn't be happier and Lincoln weeps when he meets her. Bellamy to. The rest of their people cheer and dance outside the dropship with Clarke's announcement: "It's a girl!"

They celebrate with fire and dancing and singing.

The tiny baby, all curly black curls, and olive skin is not the only new life in the following years.

At Monty and Harper's wedding Bellamy and Clarke kiss. Who kisses who isn't important, just that he is there and she is there and this is right. When the slow-burning kiss stops, she stares at him breathless and he smiles at her. There are more.

Walking back to the campfire Bellamy's arm slips around her waist. Raven cheers and Monty grins. Jasper busts up laughing when Nate groans, later Jasper thanks Clarke and Bellamy because they'd bet on it and Nathan would be doing all of Jasper's chores for two weeks. Monroe and her girlfriend clap, along with Nyko. Finn's smile is tight but its there.

Skai-raun is okay. Life happens, but they are happy.

 _Clarke can feel hot tears threatening to spill over, her throat is tight but she get out her words through clenched teeth._

 _"No, ALIE, this isn't what I want."_

 _The woman in red studies the golden-haired leader with calculating eyes._

 _Without words, Clarke is plunged into a new world._


	4. Just Clarke

**Set in the episode, Perverse Instantiation: Part 2. Rather than ALIE showing Clarke a literal City of Light, Clarke is launched into several alternate realities. ALIE shows Clarke the endless possibilities for what life could be like if she were to allow all of her people to be upgraded to the City of Light.**

 **After all, if Clarke loves her people as much as she claims, how could she subject them to the horrors of Praimfaya and more?**

 **LAST CHAPTER:**

 **The Ark abandons the hundred.**

The hike back from Mount Weather isn't long enough. Clarke's head is reeling from everything that has happened only hours ago and all too soon she sees Camp Jaha's creaky gate swing wide. Nothings changed. The camp is the same. All that blood, all that carnage, and destruction. Yet here lies Camp Jaha, as if Clarke hasn't just committed mass genocide.

Her people are home. Arkers rush to meet the wounded Mount Weather survivors at the gate and help carry in those who cannot walk. They'll be safe. Maybe that is why her decision comes too easy because her people will be safe, Skaikru will go on with Bellamy and Kane to guide them, with Abby and Jackson to heal them. Clarke can see Bellamy but she doesn't know how to address that yet. She stops outside the gate.

"Clarke?" Monty questions her, and she looks up at the sign that reads Camp Jaha.

"Monty, I-" Clarke cuts off and it's almost as if he knows because he goes in for a hug. He doesn't say anything, neither does she. When she pulls away, he tugs his sweater tight around his body and leaves to go inside. Her gaze flicks over.

Bellamy is covered in sweat and dirt. His hair is long and lies in a curly mop on his head. She almost smiles. He turns so that he stands beside her and faces the camp, he is the first to speak.

"I think we deserve a drink."

"Have one for me."

"Hey, we can get through this," Clarke feels sick at those words. Because he is right, they can, she could. Bellamy with her she could get through the next week, month, and even year. But she doesn't want to.

"I'm not going in," she lets out.

"Clarke," Bellamy turns to look her in the eye, "If you need forgiveness I'll give it to you." She knows he means it. With him looking to her, she almost wants to.

"You're forgiven." She steals a long moment of looking into his freckled face and earnest brown eyes. But she does look away. Because even he isn't enough for her to want to say.

"Please," he begs, trying to recatch her gaze, "come inside."

She needs to make this quick before he changes her mind.

"Take care of them for me."

"Clarke-" She cute him off.

"Seeing their faces every day... it's going to remind me of what I did to get them here."

"What we did," he corrects, "You don't have to do this alone." It's an offer because he knows that by leaving she is punishing herself. She knows it too. It is an offer to share that burden. Maybe it is the wrong decision, she hesitates, but she can't put more on his shoulders.

"I bear it, so they don't have to."

He knows what she means. He knows she is telling him that this time she is keeping it from weighing on him.

"Where are you going to go?"

"I don't know," Clarke can't look at him anymore so instead she kisses his cheek and hugs him tight, hiding her face.

"May we meet again," she comforts him, she doesn't mean this. She backs out, looks at him one last time, and parts.

She hears him as she walks away. He repeats her words.

Clarke looks at the mountains in front of her and casts away Camp Jaha, Bellamy, and the rest of Skaikru.

Clarke travels east. The next three days are hard and the nights are worse. Her heartaches. On the second day, she had discarded the gun into a lake after waking up from a nightmare, Dante's dead stare haunting her. It un-tethers her, losing the gun. She keeps her knives though.

Trikru is far behind her when she finds her first clan. Blue Cliff Clan, Ouskejon Kru. They are peaceful enough, she trades all her furs from the last three days. From a beaver's hide, she gets two nights in and four meals. From a softer, though smaller, fox's hide she gets herself a sketchpad, how the grounder had come across it Clarke didn't know but she was grateful for the find. During that time she talks to a man who tells her of the glowing forests Southeast, similar to the one Octavia had shown the delinquents.

"And Northeast?" She asks him.

"Podakru tayon Azgeda," (The border of Lake People and Ice Nation) he warns her.

Clarke decides on neither and heads straight east for Rock Line, Boudalan. They are more violent. Clarke finds. Day one of crossing into their territory she is greeted with bounty hunters who call her "Wanheda." She leaves them worse for wear and learns to cover her face in paint and a scarf.

She crosses mangrove swamps and wetlands.

Delphi nation is more inviting. Clarke spends upwards of two weeks there.

"No kill marks?" A man asks her when she gets her first tattoo. It is an intricate symbol of the Ark. The artist had laughed when she told him she wanted something that represented a boat in the sky.

"Not enough skin," is her answer. She is met with grim silence. Clarke had drawn the Ark insignia for him, wrapped in the symbol for space.

When she leaves he speaks once more before she slides the entry curtains closed.

"The stedaunon as klin sqwed up." (The dead demand to be paid for.)

The chilling remark stays with her.

Fifty-eight new kill marks line the shoulder opposite the new tattoo. One for each of the hundred she knew to be gone. Her direction changes and Clarke detours south.

On her way to Trishanakru she comes across a rural village where she finds sickness. There are three of them and they are too young. Fevers. Clarke pushes away memories of her people and their bloody eyes, instead focusing on the two boys and little girl. It gives her purpose for the first time in a long time, and all three kids are well when she packs up and continues on her weary travel.

The next tattoo she is given is in thanks for helping the village. It is a band around her bicep and it drips three triangles, for three lives saved. Healer. Clarke places it on the same side as her fifty-eight marks as a reminder that she has not yet repaid her debt.

Clarke no longer pays attention to the time. She sees the glowing forests and they are beautiful, yes. But she finds no pleasure in them. However, she does come across a nomadic tribe. Hodneskru. The name represents peace and promise: they mean no harm. Miko and Adriana, the leaders of the ragtag group, invite Clarke along.

"Tagon," Clarke calls herself. A girl with grey eyes and red hair laughs at that.

"If you are going to make a name, think of a better one than 'name." Clarke stands by the chosen word, and the red-haired girl introduces herself.

"Kida."

The wild girl is her age, and she becomes Clarke's new favorite person to talk to. Though Clarke doesn't talk much. Mostly Kida is the one to ramble on.

Kida introduces her to several other people. Clarke absolutely loves them and their stories. Some have been banished, some left, some had nothing left to stay for. One of the banished men, Ta'aroa, reminds her of Murphy. This version of Murphy looks nothing like the delinquent Clarke had known, but she finds that talking to Ta'aroa makes her miss John.

With each new person she meets, Clarke is astounded by the variety of personalities, culture, and appearance. Every size, shape, skin tone, hair, and eye color is included. These outcasts each bring a new tale to the table. Clarke's nightly routine becomes learning a new tale each night. Kida recounts hers first.

Kida starts by revealing to Clarke a tattoo which crawls up from her left wrist all the way to the base of her neck, she tells Clarke of the Desert Clan she was born in. Kida loved it, once. She describes their culture and tradition, Clarke is most fascinated by the reason Kida left.

"Here, if you are born with a disfigurement you are shunned," Kida explains, "I left when they killed my brother, Yacob."

"For having a disfigurement?" Clarke asks, but Kida is already shaking her head.

"For falling in love with a nomad who did."

Kida gives no more detail about the torrid affair, instead, she describes the desert to Clarke. With her descriptions and stories, Clarke is able to create an image of a canyon in her sketchbook. It is the drawing that catches the other people's attention, so each night she listens to their stories and draws their old homes.

Nearly half of the nomads have been banished for disfigurements. Clarke draws a pregnant woman, who Clarke finds beautiful. Usha, who rests the nub of one arm over her swollen, pregnant belly, keeps her dark dreadlocks in thick ropes which hang to her waist. Clarke illustrates Usha while she recounts her time as a nomad since that is the only life she has ever known.

Her partner is a man named Riku. He is a tall, broad-shouldered man and he has tattoos everywhere, but they aren't the typical black ink. They are white. Most of Riku's stories are explaining his tattoos. The script along his side reads: Ye gonplei ste nowe odon. (Your fight is never over.) Riku believes that there are stages of our lives, that we are reborn again and again, that this is just one adventure before the next, and we pass here only if our mission is finished. It's a nice concept, Clarke thinks, but it doesn't fit for her.

The following night Clarke meets Trishna. The woman is tough and scarred, but she is kind to everyone. As is her daughter, Holly. Trishna ran from her clan when her daughter was cast out. Holly has a lump of scar tissue which has closed one eye shut completely, and pulls her mouth drastically to the left. Her right eye, however, is a startling sky blue, and her hair is bright blonde, almost white. She is beautiful as well, Clarke thinks, they all are.

Aside from Holly, there are two other children. Binns and Eden. Eden is the tiniest thing in the world, he's less than 2 years old and he's the smiliest baby (and person) Clarke has ever met. His big blinking doe eyes, which Clarke adores, are a stark contrast against his pale skin. Binns, on the other hand, has olive skin and for the most part, never makes a sound. He watches the people around him closely and Clarke sees him scrunch his nose when he is deep in thought. Kida jokes that it'll take a while for the intelligent three-year-old to grow into such large hands.

Every night Kida tells the three kids stories. Her stories vary from tales of the desert to the sky and most are about the stars. Kida tells the kids of warriors who fought valiantly for their place in the stars. When Kida tells the children of the missing star, Clarke has to bite her tongue to keep in the bitter laugh.

"Tree Mother," is the name Kida gives the star, "was a kind though mighty warrior. Her children are all around you," Kida tells them gesturing to the trees.

"She knew that the sun was sick with a fever. Soon the sun would not be able to contain its fever and it would burn so bright that it would reach the ground."

Eden is asleep, and his light snores distract Kida for a moment. Holly is patient and silent, but Binns pulls her attention back.

"The Tree Mother loved her children with all the love of the sky and stars combined, she couldn't stand to watch them burn. So she fell. Tree Mother flew down from her heavens to protect her trees from burning."

The irony hurts.

Although everyone else tells Clarke their tales, she refrains from sharing hers but she does reveal her name. Clarke isn't sure if the group suspects she is Skaikru. She doesn't ask. After stories, Gloria will share a song with everyone. Clarke sways in time to the melodies though she will not join in for at least a month and when she does Gloria is ecstatic, Clarke sings low to compliment Gloria's clear and husky voice. Everyone either dances or smiles as they listen. Aside from Vaego, a young man not much older than Clarke, who fashions a makeshift drum and uses his palm to play along.

Kida dances with Binns around the fire. As do Yavanna and Sam before snuggling up to one another to watch. Yavanna's mother watches with a small smile and wrinkled eyes. Even Clarke dances on occasion, once with Holly, another time with Vaego.

Clarke is happy.

Kida and Vaego have to help Clarke in order to hold up the map she has made in its entirety. It is autumn now and the tribe is up to thirty-one people. In their last village, Clarke had gotten her second tattoo: the symbol of her tribe. Trishna teaches Clarke new braids to use on her thick and long hair, and Vaego teaches Clarke how to wield a sword.

The hodgepodge group travels everywhere. Some places they stay longer than others and some they avoid due to wars or conflicts. More people join. Among the newest people are three siblings, Faeryn, Mokoli'i, and Kaōhoa. The three siblings were banished from Floukru (The Boat People) as a result of violence during the last great war of the clans. Kaōhoa, the middle sibling, is a hot-headed boy aged seventeen years, and he started a riot when Floukru announced they would stay out of the clan's wars. When Kaōhoa was banished, his siblings joined him. Faeryn, who is the youngest at age fifteen, flirts with everyone. In return, most of the tribe chuckles or laughs and pats her back or ruffles her charcoal hair. Mokoli'i has the saddest story, in Clarke's opinion.

"When we left Floukru, I had only just been married to the most amazing woman, Tané for a few short months, when I left with my siblings she did not join me. I mourned for her every waking second, and often in my sleep as well," Mokoli'i's eyes are closed and his words are steady.

"Turns out she had missed me too," Mokoli'i said with a shaky chuckle, "because it was only two weeks later that she found us."

Then Mokoli'i's voice becomes dark and sad and angry and tired all at once.

"She became sick in a matter of days. So faint that Tané could not stand for fear of blacking out and so hot that I knew she must have been cooking inside out. Then the vomit started."

It is a difficult thing to hear for Clarke, Tané's sickness. It must have been a thousand times worse to see.

"Not just water or food, my Tané threw up blood."

Mokoli'i's next words are those of a broken man, "I slit her throat. When she begged for death's hand."

That night is the first night Clarke is able to tell anyone in the tribe of Finn. Not everything, but enough. Mokoli'i understands her even if their circumstance differs. "Tough decisions," Mokoli'i states when she finishes.

"Tough situations," is her response.

The following night, she tells her story. Part of it anyway, she omits most violent aspects. Kida laughs when she finishes.

"Sleng, Clarke, you're a better storyteller than I am."

When Vaego isn't helping her learn to use a sword, Paora works on hand-to-hand combat with her. Paora is covered from head to toe in scars, so only after Clarke grew to know Paora as a humorous man, with a gut-busting contagious laugh, did she stop glancing at him warily.

Others help too, Kida teaches her bow and arrow; Eli, Adriana's partner, gives her a double-edged dagger and teaches her to use it. Clarke tries to ignore it, but she hates herself. For moving on.

There are two occasions when the tribe comes across abandoned villages. Both times the villages are decimated. The world crumbled and dirty with rubble and dried blood and bones. Ta'aroa finds guns in what must have been a trading post but Riku tells him and everyone else not to touch them. When he does Clarke releases a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. She'd had enough of guns to last her a lifetime.

The guns are in the same area that Faeryn finds a stuffed horse who she gifts to Holly. It is ragged and crusted but the girl beams. Holly hugs Faeryn before rushing off to show her mother. Trishna kisses Faeryn's cheeks and the teenager promptly finds two more toys, for Binns and Eden.

"Clarke!" Holly bounces up and down ecstatically, "look at what Faeryn gave me!" Clarke grins at the ball of never-ending energy.

"Have you named him yet?" Holly's face pinches up.

"Well, uh..." The little girl sits on the question for a good minute before deciding on "Butterfly." It is such a precious moment that Clarke draws Hooly and her horse later that night.

It is the first moment when Clarke doesn't feel terrible for moving forward. The first time she thinks maybe it is a positive thing.

Everyone in the tribe has become someone of meaning to Clarke. Admittedly some more than others, but nonetheless. She will not label them family for fear of fully replacing her old people, but she does recognize them as her tribe and friends. She loves them. Every once in a while they remind her too much of Skaikru or Arkers. When Faeryn goes on a fiery rant or takes chances into her own hands and Clarke can see Raven's eyes glinting or Octavia's stone cold strength. When Clarke squints and catches a glance of Monty hidden in Vaego's features. When Sam speaks and Clarke can hear Nathan Miller. When Riku's personality and humor match that of her dad's.

Clarke pushes those thoughts in a vault and slams that door shut.

They come across the ocean at one point. The water stretches outwards forever, glittering and rhythmically lapping on the shore. It is terrifying. When Binns, who has no family, spots it, he is overjoyed.

"Wada!" He shouts to Clarke. He splashes in the waves around him.

"Wada!" He cheers, and both Clarke, and Kida and Eden join him. The spend the day in the salty air and cool waves. It is a refreshing break for Clarke's sore and calloused feet. She draws it several times. Usha standing with Riku shin-deep in the sand from being still. Faeryn with her and Kaōhoa's sandcastle inhabited by crabs and other shellfish. Binns and Kida running away from the crashing waves.

When Mokoli'i spots the outline of an island, the tribe debates finding a way to cross and venture into that horizon. When Binns sees the outline he tells Kida sternly that the "bad men" live there. Mokoli'i shrugs and scoops up the toddler to sit on his shoulder. The tribe turns their backs to the sea.

Within a week of leaving the seas behind, Usha beings contraptions. Real contraptions, not the trick ones which are nothing compared to these ones. Clarke is in charge. She had been dreading this day, as the only births she'd known before now were those in Space. On the Ark, miscarriages or other complications were typical. But she is not alone, Adriana helps and Riku is there for Usha. It is hours of contraptions. Hours of Usha groaning and biting down on rags. Hours of Adriana's soft comforting words, and hours of Usha's crass shouts. If she wasn't so focused, Clarke might have laughed at the crude insults. Usha was normally a sweet and kind woman, now she was verbally attacking everything from Riku and his 'mami' to Clarke's 'nomajoka.'

When it is over, Clarke laughs in relief. Her tense shoulders loosen up and she washes what she can off of their baby. Riku's hand is permanently crushed and Usha is covered in a sheen of sweat. But the pair are grinning, absolutely glowing in the presence of their new little girl.

They name her Rouz after her russet, almost red eyes. The tribe celebrates the new life in song and dance. In the next few days, the tribe would realize the lack of sleep the little angel meant. But for now, they rejoiced for the new member. Clarke even adds a triangle to her tattooed bicep.

Months pass and Hodneskru winds up on snowy cliffs. So far Clarke had trekked deserts, swamps, and wetlands with the group. Nothing like snow. The brisk cold leaves the smaller ones, Holly, Eden, Binns, and Rouz, with pink nipped noses and ears. Clarke finds that drawing flow capped mountains and forests is a whole new skill, nothing like warm sands and salty seas.

The tribe had been walking most of the day before setting up camp in a cave, one that was well off their path and hidden by foliage and snow banks, where they had set up a crackling fire to enjoy the peace, the kids were asleep and the rest were too tired to sing or tell stories.

When most everyone's had slipped shut, Vaego turned to Clarke who was nodding off.

"I'll take first watch," he offered. Clarke could only hum her response before her own eyes closed.

The following morning a guttural growl caused Clarke to jump up from the ground. In front of her were two massive hounds and in between them, a figure covered in furs. The dogs were menacing creatures, one of them was missing an ear and the other had ridges crossing his muzzle. The figure was not a broad one, it was fairly slim despite layers of furs.

In her peripheral vision, Clarke could see others were awake and defensive as well; Riku, Kida, Miko, Adriana.

"I don't mean to startle you," a feminine voice stated. The figure unwrapped a shawl from around her neck to reveal a woman with dark-toned skin and braided hair. From behind her Adriana gasped and ran past her to hug the woman who received her with open arms.

"Ava!" Miko called out in a greeting.

Clarke learns later from Kida that these people call themselves Reinjas (or Rangers.) Ava's group had once been a part of Miko and Adriana's own tribe. Clarke can recall the story from one of her first nights with the group.

Ava fills in the gaps. They had grown tired of the nomadic lifestyle and chosen the mountain ranges to stay. The unclaimed peaks were vast enough to roam somewhat while still offering a permanent home.

"The hounds," Ava explained, "were an initially an issue. However we thought it too cruel to steal their home, so we worked to train them. They have become invaluable assets."

Hodneskru is introduced to the Reijas a half hour later. Some of the oldest members reunite with old family and friends. It's sweet. Ava has three children: two daughters and one son. The son is Clarke's age and when they are introduced he tells her his name is "Kavin."

Clarke would spend the next few days talking with him and drawing I'llah, his wolf-hound.

Life continues on. Hodneskru avoids Trikru and wanders every but. Kavin joins them when they leave the snow-capped peaks, as do others in the time following. On the occasion, Clarke hears of Wanheda or Skaikru but those incidents fade out.

The group is walking through the glowing forests one morning. Clark walks with Binns, watching as he chases after luminescent blue butterflies. She chuckles when he turns to pout for having missed. Her heart is warm and full for her family.

There is no pressure in this life, not really.

She is not Clarke Griffin, the girl who landed on Earth from the sky. The girl who was born on the ark, but sent to Earth to die. The girl who loved a boy whose heart was his downfall. The girl who whispered "May we meet again," in her sleep when the nightmares showcased her father.

She is not Wanheda, the Commander of death, the fearless warrior. The warrior who did what it took to survive regardless of means. The warrior whose hands and heart dripped in blood, her face set in stone, who believed love was a weakness.

She is just Clarke, a member of a peaceful group who travels wherever. A woman who helps people, and it doesn't come at the cost of others. A woman just like any other. She is just Clarke, and that works for her.

She doesn't think of Finn when she comforts Binns. And that is okay, she is okay. She's moving on, happy enough.

 _"No," Clarke whispers to ALIE, "that isn't what I want."_

 _She screws her eyelids shut to rid herself of Hodneskru. Of Kida, Ferren, and Usha, and Vaego._

 _"This isn't real."_

She opens her eyes to see John Murphy's steel gray ones examining her own.


	5. Lexa & Mount Weather

**Story Synopsis: (Set in the episode, Perverse Instantiation: Part 2.)**

 **Rather than ALIE showing Clarke a literal City of Light, to search for a "kill switch" Clarke is launched into several alternate realities. ALIE shows Clarke the endless possibilities for what life could be like if she were to allow all of her people to be upgraded to the City of Light.**

 **After all, if Clarke loves her people as much as she claims, how could she subject them to the horrors of Praimfaya and more?**

John Murphy was sitting on the steps in front of Clarke. There wasn't much more he could do now that Clarke had taken the chip and Abby wasn't exactly talkative. Then again, neither was he. He turned to look at Clarke, checking to see that the black blood was still running through her veins.

Taking the chip was a ridiculous plan. But if they were going to die anyway, might as well hand themselves over and take the chip, right? Now Abigail was off doing who knows what while he was babysitting Clarke. And Bellamy, Octavia, and Pike were all working to barricade the doors. All for what? A couple of extra seconds?

John's cynical thoughts were interrupted when Clarke started making noise. He stood up slowly, careful not to wake her.

"No," she muttered, "This isn't what I want."

John got close enough to study her face. Her eyebrows were furrowed and she was frowning.

"Clarke?" John asked.

"This isn't real" Clarke stated, this time with more clarity. Then her eyes shot open. She just stared, and he stared back.

"Clarke?" He tried again.

"Oh, my- Murphy!" Clarke finally spoke.

"Clarke, what the h-"

"No, stop, I don't have time. Murphy, it's ALIE. She showing me worlds in the City of Light-"

"Worlds?" John repeated.

"Yes, worlds, realities places where our people can live on. The Ark never fails, or the hundred are left abandoned, or-or-"

"Clarke wait! Hold on a minute. Can you find the kill switch or not?" He pressed urgently.

"No, yes, I can but Murphy she keeps redirecting me." He nods while she speaks.

"Distracting you, long enough for her goonies to catch up. Clarke, you've got to find a way to focus on the mission here," John ordered, "Or we aren't making it out of this, Clarke you-" He stopped when Clarke's eyes shut and Ontari started groaning on the table next to her. The black blood had stopped.

"Abby! Abby!" John hollered racing to Ontari's side, "We've got a problem!"

He grabbed her seizing shoulders, "Hey, hey, come on."

Abby was by John's side in an instant, pushing him aside.

"Move! She's crashing," Abby told him starting to pump the woman's chest. Blood began to run back through the tubes to Clarke.

"Clarke's not getting enough nightblood. Her body is already rejecting the flame."

There was blood running down from Clarke's nose now.

"You need to take over," Abby ordered and John snapped his focus back to her, "Do exactly as I am doing." He hesitated and Abby pulled him to Ontari.

"Come on."

John placed his hand clasped over Ontari's shirt and began the same ministrations Abby had been performing.

"If the blood stops flowing through this tube," Abby warned, "Clarke's brain will liquefy."

At that moment Clarke began seizing. John looked up from the compressions to see her shaking body was also spitting foam from the mouth.

"It's not working," Abby told him and he had to bite his sarcastic retort, obviously.

"Open her shirt."

John stopped the compressions and ripped open the buckles as Abby laid tools out on the table.

"She's still not getting enough blood. We have to increase Ontari's heart rate." Warily, John stepped back when Abby picked up a scalpel.

"I'm not going to like this, am I?" He asked though it was not responded to. John had to look away when Abigail pierced Ontari's chest and dragged the knife down.

Clarke was spewing foam and blood was seeping from her nose and ears.

"Abby, you need to move faster, okay?" Abigail inserted a metal contraption into Ontari's open chest and spread her ribs. The cracking made John flinch. He could only gawk as Abigail reached her hand down to take hold of a black, dead heart. She pumped it with her hand and black blood oozed its way back through the tubes.

"Get over here," Abby instructed, "I need you to pump her heart." John felt his mouth pop open in shock and disgust.

"What? Are- are you crazy? I'm not going to pump her heart!"

"Now!" Abigail demanded, taking her own hand out of the dead body. John reluctantly reached his own down.

"It's okay, right under there," Abby showed him. He took hold of the black organ and felt a strong need to throw up all over it.

"Oh, gods."

"It's okay, it's okay," Abby repeated, "you're doing great." Her words weren't helping. This was revolting.

"Just go get Clarke, I got this," he bit out.

He could hear her murmuring but all he could focus on was fighting the wave of nausea hitting him full force.

Clarke is plunged into a new scene.

She is beside Lexa, an army is behind them, ready to follow. The lights of the door to Mount Weather shut off, indicating the power was out.

"She did it," Clarke marveled.

"One minute starting now," Lexa stated.

"For those, we've lost," Clarke offers, and Lexa looks to her.

"And for those, we'll soon find." Together they press down on the device and the door explodes open.

The two woman and their army marches inside and takes control of the entire facility. They find Monty and he leads them to where they find Raven being strapped to a table and several others chained to the wall. They immediately captured all the doctors and released their people.

Wick swooped Raven up and Monty rushed to Harper's side. Clarke wasn't sure where Bellamy was, but she couldn't think of him yet. She, Kane, Lexa, and Dante and Cage met to discuss their future proceedings.

As they had the upper hand, Clarke, Lexa, and Kane established terms. No more acid fog, no more reapers, no more blood or bone marrow forcibly taken. In other words, leave well enough alone. In return, Lexa's people and Clarke's would return the favor. Cage reluctantly agreed by his father's command and it was settled, but before they left, Clarke requested Maya Vie receive one of the remaining marrow doses, should she want it; Cage was certainly unhappy about that but Dante obliged.

Lexa announced the release over the public address system. Together the woman rounded up their people and patrolled the facility to ensure they had all of them. They marched out, and Clarke stood at the entrance to meet her people.

Bellamy leads Skaikru and everyone else out of the mountain. When Clarke sees him she laughs in relief and runs to him

He's carrying Fox who is bleeding too much, and the Ark medics reach him before she does. Clarke backs off so Fox can be lowered from Bellamy onto a stretcher from the Mountain.

Lexa comes to stand beside Clarke, and so the grounders see Clarke taking control while her own people see her saving them. Monty comes after Bellamy and squeezes her tight, he's crying too, but Clarke doesn't mind the wet shoulder. He stays beside her, as does Miller and Harper.

One by one, her people trail out of the Mountain, most weak and staggering, some crying, but it is okay because they are out and safe and everyone is hugging her. When Maya and Jasper come out, Jasper hugs her tighter than anyone else and he just repeats "Thank you, thank you, thank you," over and over. With a shaky laugh, she hugs him just as tight. She is just so incredibly thankful. When Wick comes out carrying Raven, Clarke tries to get a stretcher but Wick and Raven both reject it, and Wick keeps walking.

Truth be told, Clarke would rather walk over to where her people are congregating. She wants to cry because she is so happy, but she doesn't. She stands at Lexa's side just for now, so as to establish her role for Lexa's people. From where she stands, she can see Octavia in all her war-paint and tight braids wrap her brother in a hug. He breathes her in and meets Clarke's eyes from across the clearing.

When they are all out, Clarke turns to Lexa. They grasp one another's forearms and Lexa smiles.

"Visit soon," Lexa tells Clarke.

She doesn't ask Clarke again to join her in the capital. Indra nods from beside Lexa and Clarke turns to walk her people home, Monty, Harper, Miller and all the rest.

Her mom catches up to her and hugs her tight. Clarke may still be upset with her mother, but those bitter feelings do not change the fact that she loves her. She comforts her sobbing mom and part of her cannot help but think that between the two of them, Clarke will always be the one offering support.

"Shh, Mom, mom look at me," Clarke whispers to her, "you're okay, we're okay."

Kane is there too, and when Abby finishes hugging Clarke he gives her a nod.

"Well done," He then puts an arm around Abby to walk with her and Clarke is not exactly surprised. This new development does not bother her as much as it maybe should. But Clarke is too caught up in the euphoria of having her people home.

During the walk, she does finally get her reunion with Bellamy. He smiles and tells her "You did good here, Clarke," she's beaming when he wraps her in a hug. Bellamy's chest rumbles with his throaty laugh and Clarke takes the moment to close her eyes and breathe. When she pulls back, she notices Octavia and Lincoln walking with Bellamy.

Lincoln grasps Clarke's forearm, "You have done right with this treaty, my people will respect that strength."

Octavia slings an arm around her brother's shoulder and Clarke meets her gaze. It is uncharacteristically uncertain, but she nods. It is not forgiveness, maybe it is acceptance or a truce. It certainly is not thanks, but whatever it is, the nod is enough for now.

The group arrives at Camp Jaha and Clarke helps Fox, Raven, and others injured to the med bay. Jackson, Abby, and Clarke spend the next few hours working. A barely coherent Fox tells Clarke, "I'll be fine, you've got this." Clarke is not so sure. But Abby is busy with two others and Jackson is tending to a third, all in about the same shape as Fox.

She doesn't make it through the night, but Clarke cannot feel that pain yet because there are three others with blood poisoning. Two died within the hour. The third held on for one more miserable hour.

"Time of death, 2:03 a.m," Jackson announces and Clarke walks out stiffly.

Sitting outside Camp Jaha's fence afterward, Clarke stares at her blood-drenched hands. "There was nothing more you could have done," Her mom had said as she left. Clarke was tired of words like those: I had no choice, it was the only option, I did my best. Did she? Fox had trusted Clarke to save her life, and she could not. Did that make Clarke a healer, murderer, or a liar?

Footsteps crunch the Earth behind her, but Clarke doesn't turn to look. Bellamy takes a seat beside her and takes one of her hands, he wipes the blood off of it with a damp rag.

They don't talk, Clarke just stares at her hands until Bellamy has finished. When he does, she feels tears, hot and wet, trail down her cheeks, Bellamy doesn't let go of the hand he was cleaning, they stay there well into the night, Clarke staring past trees and Bellamy holding her hand.

The following days are difficult. The ark sets up a council and most people go back to life the way it was. But Clarke can see a clear difference between the arkers and her own people. They don't belong here.

Monty and Harper cling to one another, as do Jasper and Maya. Maya studies everything in a mixture of terror and awe from behind Jasper's back. Monroe is constantly on edge, never without her gun, as is Nathan Miller. Clarke spends her morning running around the compound, Bellamy does too. It is odd running for exercise rather than safety. She finds the routine keeps her head clear for a while.

The council doesn't seem to understand that though the hundred have left the Mountain, the Mountain hasn't left them.

Abby continues to treat her like a child. While Kane seems to suddenly think Clarke can do all their dirty work. The council as a whole expects the hundred to go back to being kids. But the kids know better. They are survivors now, not children, and while the arkers respectfully avoid them, the council sees the teenagers as reckless, and in need of care. In front of the arkers, the hundred has to be strong. Only around one another can they be broken. Her people are hurting, and so is she.

At one point, Clarke wakes up in the middle of the night to yelling. She bursts out of her room and rushes across the hall to see that Harper is having a panic attack.

"Harper, harper, can you hear me?" Clarke asks, slowly walking up to the panic-stricken woman.

Monty rushes in after her and is able to pull Harper out of it, but Clarke knows she can't subject her people to this anymore.

During their run the following morning, Clarke stops suddenly and looks at Bellamy.

"This isn't working, I can't stand this, I can't-" She stops, and studies Bellamy who stares to the tree line ahead.

"Bellamy-" He cuts her off.

"Me either," Bellamy tells her and Clarke doesn't know what to say so they cut the run short and walk back.

They don't leave easily. The council isn't happy or at least Abigail and Kane are upset. But Clarke shuts them all up. She loves her mom, but she can't live like this and she won't force her people to.

Two weeks after Mount Weather, the hundred leave Camp Jaha. It is optional, Clarke wouldn't force her people from their family or friends. But everyone comes. Lincoln, Wick, and Maya included. Wick coming surprised her, but he seemed determined to follow Raven.

Abby hugs her and cries, not unexpectedly, Kane watches Clarke with some irritation but mostly worry, and Clarke and Bellamy take their people to Polis. Lexa gives them a piece of land wider than needed, under the negation that they make the land farmable so they might trade. They accept the offer and head off immediately.

It is two days away from Camp Jaha, and it is beautiful.

"Too good to be true," Bellamy tells her when they get to it, and Clarke has to agree. But their people are too tired to do anything but smile and accept it. Part of Clarke is already trying to figure out how they will utilize this place. How will they build shelters and create crops? But she turns those thoughts away when one of the quieter delinquents shouts for joy and races towards a lake. The group promptly follows and they spend the day washing the dirt from their bodies and splashing each other.

Clarke catches Bellamy studying the birch trees around them with a critical eye. When she sits beside him, perched on a rock in the shallow end, he points out different trees.

"That line right there, along with the edge of the lake, is where we should start our wall. Those trees," Bellamy gestures in a different direction, "may be our best option for building cabins." He looks down at Clarke who is staring at him blankly for just a moment before she shoves him off the rock and into the water. She is laughing when he comes back up sputtering indignantly.

Bellamy picks her up and dunks her in retaliation.

They stay in tents for up to a month. The tents aren't warm, but a couple of people spend a day lining the tents with furs to help keep away the autumn chill. For the most part, everyone else works on the cabins, whether that meant cutting wood, making furniture or assembling the buildings themselves. The first cabin to go up is the largest, and when it is finished everyone lines their things inside. Eventually, it would become the mess hall but until the other cabins are complete that is where everyone sleeps. It's tight, but no one really minds. They were used to being in close quarters especially after Mount Weather.

The next cabin to go up is the med bay. One by one the other cabins are complete and one by one people leave the mess hall to take claim over a bed. The cabins and other furniture are not works of art and the teenagers miss some of the reassuring aspects of sleeping outside, the wind whistling, dew on the canvas of the tents, nonetheless it is nice to have a place to call their own. Better to have something safe and secure to keep out the cold.

There are a few who do not work on the cabins. Raven drags Wick around for a few days and together they get hot water running to the mess hall and med bay. Monty and Jasper argue over crops, planting widths, seeds, and watering schedules. Maya spends most of the time with those two as well, and she smirks as they fuss about. She is doing okay, here on the ground. When Clarke gets her talking she learns that Maya adores the bird calls in the morning, the colors of the sky, and the smells.

Really, since setting up here, Clarke hasn't seen Maya without flowers in her hands or in her hair. Clarke catches Jasper weaving a few in her braid and Maya smiles up at him. It's sweet, she thinks.

Octavia and Lincoln announce that they won't need a cabin, as they do not plan on staying. Instead, they travel between Polis, Camp Jaha, and the teenagers camp. Which is useful. Lincoln tells Clarke that the term Skaikru has stuck, and even become Skaigedakru so that is what the came becomes. Skaigeda. It doesn't fit their people, not anymore. Lincoln and Clarke are friendly enough, though Octavia and Clarke don't speak to one another. They mutually avoid one another when possible.

As for the finished twenty-five cabins, including the mess hall and med bay, everyone is moved in. They even have a leftover they assign to Octavia and Lincoln, should they need it. For the most part, it is two to a cabin. Clarke starts out with Raven, but she unpacks all her things in the med bay and convinces Wick to take her spot in the cabin before she ever steps foot in the cabin.

Bellamy finds her tying up a hammock in the med bay.

"This is ridiculous," he claims in an annoyed tone. Clarke doesn't look up or respond.

"Clarke, you're alone and-" She turns around

"Bellamy, it's easier this way, in case of emergencies," Clarke reasons. Bellamy argues a bit more but drops it for now. Her guess is Bellamy knew she wasn't going to budge and he didn't try convincing her to move in with anyone.

Nights get colder and everyone works to get the camp ready for winter. Most of that means hunting and foraging. Dried meat or dried fruit is infinitely better than no food. A few weeks after the camp last saw them, Octavia and Lincoln return.

Bellamy and Clarke were in the mess hall when Bellamy lept to his feet.

"O!" Bellamy called and greeted his sister with open arms and a wide grin.

"Hey Bell," She laughs in return, arms wound around him. Lincoln gives Clarke a smile, and she returns the gesture. Raven steals Octavia's next hug which is rewarded with an awkward laugh on Octavia's part. Bellamy tells them of the cabin they had set aside for the two and he leads them to drop off their few things. Clarke stays behind.

The next morning, the camp gets its first snowfall. Much of the work has been done, drying out food, so today they take a break and enjoy the snow. With the new-found time, Harper, Maya, Monty, and Clarke decide on a new name. Briekgeda. Free Nation.

"It's fitting," Lincoln tells them.

After that Clarke spends her day sketching, sitting on top of the med bay. She likes this spot best because she can see past the tree line, and draw the horizon.

Winter brings snow-capped trees and pink cheeks and noses. It also brings sickness. Clarke spends her days tending to colds and learning to sketch snow. Bellamy complains even more about Clarke staying in the med bay, surrounded by sick people. It doesn't change her resolve. In fact, when the fevers come on she is even more convinced she is in the right place.

Lincoln ends up getting sick too. Clarke notices one morning in the mess hall and she tells him he had better take it easy. He doesn't stay in the med bay like the others who are sick, and Clarke doesn't hassle him about it, she gets the feeling Octavia would be even more annoyed.

Then Lincoln gets worse. Way worse. And Octavia and Clarke's silent spell ends when Octavia comes in screeching at Clarke.

"Clarke!" It's early in the morning, still mostly dark and Clarke jolts awake to see Octavia inches from her face.

"Octavia?" Her raspy voice asks.

"It's Lincoln," is all Octavia says and so Clarke hops up and chases after the younger blake. Lincoln is in bed and he's sweating and shivering at the same time.

"We wanted to wake up early, get a head start on hunting. I woke up and he was like this," Octavia explains and Clarke furrows her brow.

"Go get Bellamy and Nathan," Clarke tells her.

"He's going to be okay though, right?" Octavia asks her and Clarke repeats herself.

"Go get Bellamy and Nathan, now."

Clarke has Bellamy and Nathan lay Lincoln out on a makeshift bed in the med bay, somewhat separated from the other empty patient beds. She tells Octavia to leave, and Bellamy to go with her. Nathan stays and helps her.

Lincoln is getting worse, and Octavia can tell the second she sees him. When he won't wake up she flips out.

"You're going to fix him, or I am going to _tear_ you apart!" Octavia whips out her blade and holds it to Clarke's neck, "Do you hear me? I will invert your rib cage if he dies."

"Octavia-" Clarke tried responding but stopped when Octavia's blade actually bit into her shoulder, nothing deep, more like a long papercut, but the sting shut her up. Raven rushed in, probably because of all the commotion, and Bellamy was right behind her. It took both Raven and Bellamy to drag her out.

That isn't the last time that happens either. But Clarke doesn't blame Octavia because she's scared and Clarke gets that. Lincoln gets so bad that Clarke isn't sure if it would be better to wrap him and hope his fever breaks or lay him on top of the blankets rather than in them to cool him down. She decides to wrap him but keeps switching out the cool cloth on his forehead. Clarke mixes tea and burns moss and uses up the rest of her antibiotics before he shows any improvement, from there he recovers within two days and Clarke is relieved no one else seemed to be getting that sick.

When he is awake and strong enough, Clarke calls Octavia in to see him standing. The otherwise fierce woman cries and hugs Lincoln before hugging Clarke.

"Thank you, I'm sorry, thank you, oh my gods," Octavia mumbles repeatedly.

Clarke hugs her back with hesitation, but tells her, "It's alright, he's okay."

Aside from the sickness and dried food, Clarke missed winter. She'd enjoyed drawing it. But spring brought new things to draw, and eat. Monty and Jasper got crops started and soon enough thriving. The camp found a way to rotate or assign jobs and chores for everyone.

Octavia and Lincoln left for Polis, and Clarke, Bellamy, and Nathan joined them.

When they came to Polis, Lexa greeted them immediately and invites Clarke to a meeting with the other clans. She and Bellamy attend as ambassadors of their clan.

Lexa starts the meeting by stating "Heda, Leksa kom Trikru." Then each ambassador states their name and clan.

"Briekgeda," Clarke announces. Lexa raises her eyebrows at the new name, but nods and they continue on. They discuss the past winter's trials and ways to combat them in the future, as well as any conflicts the clans had had with one another. When the meeting disperses, Lexa invites Clarke to attend once a month and she and Bellamy agree.

The group visits Polis awhile more after the meeting. Nathan had gone into a tattoo vendors booth and Octavia and Lincoln were off with Indra. So Bellamy and Clarke found themselves sitting by a vendor in Polis' center square, sharing some sort of meat they had bartered for.

"It seems Lexa was hoping you would be attending the meetings, alone," Bellamy observes, feigning casualty. Clarke looked at him somewhat amused.

"She'll just have to get used to you tagging along," Clarke responded teasingly.

"Tagging along?" Bellamy smirked, his voice mocking offense, "Is that what I do?" Clarke gave him a prideful look before chuckling.

They are interrupted by Nathan Miller approaching.

"I couldn't decide on anything, but they said if I bring a picture next time they would do it as long as its simple. We ought to find some sort of symbol for our clan," Clarke nodded.

"Good idea, we'll need something the rest of our kru like."

Octavia and Lincoln don't join them on the journey home, saying they would rather spend time with Nyko.

The following month, Nathan brings a sketch Raven, Harper, and Maya came up with, two V's which drag downwards through a circle to overlap, to the tattoo vendor. He shows it off on his shoulder proudly around camp and the symbol winds up being painted on outside of the mess hall.

"It's the mountains and the valley which surround our camp," Harper explains to Clare.

Maya tells Clarke it means "Your descent from the sky to the ground."

"Maybe the joining of Skaikru and Trikru," Harper edits. But Raven shakes her head at both of them.

"It shows us breaking tradition, carving our own path," she offers instead.

"Or it's just a funny shaped star," Wick adds, and Raven slugs him in the shoulder.

The following month Nathan talks Clarke into getting the same symbol, though she puts it on the inside of her wrist. Bellamy gets his at the same time, on the same wrist. From there it becomes a trend.

Octavia decides it should be earned, and Briekgeda latches onto the concept with fervor. Their people show off their tatted bicep, calf, or back of the neck with pride.

That summer, Harper gets her tattoo after successfully starting a forge with Monroe and Fillip. From the forge, iron is melted down to make anything and everything. Harper starts off by making nails to secure the cabins which proves to be an invaluable decision when monsoon season hits. The storms don't last long, however, and when they are over, Monty gets to growing corn.

Trade with the surrounding villages gets better with Harper's iron and Monty's corn, which is why Monty winds up getting his tattoo.

With Camp Jaha only two days away, a few trips are made now and then. When Abby see Clarke's tattoo she is not happy.

"You could have gotten ink poisoning and it isn't worth it to have this fit you insist upon," Clarke refrains from remarking. As for Kane, he seems to have the opposite opinion of Abby.

"Smart politics, for the grounders' view," Clarke doesn't care for his approval, but she enjoys the look on her mother's face when Kane says it.

When Clarke returns from her trip, Bellamy tells her of the new bunker Wick had found and tatted himself for. It was even smaller than the one they'd found when first arriving on the ground, but it came with resources; bullets, blankets, even swords.

For the most part, things are better. Sometimes accidents happen, but more often than not the accidents are small. Her people are healing, as is she. The occasional panic-attack or nightmare happens, even Clarke gets them. She sees Bellamy get some but his are quiet.

Clarke and Bellamy had kept up their running routine from Camp Jaha. After running in the early morning, Bellamy walks with Clarke to the med bay.

"I am running out of the stuff Nyko showed us last time we were in Polis. That stuff was useful," Clarke tells Bellamy as they step inside the med bay.

"The red plant?" Bellamy asks her, leaning against the entryway.

"Yeah, the red one," Clarke says, rummaging through her supplies, "Forget running short, I am completely out now," Clarke frowns.

"Maybe tomorrow we should go on a herb trip," She ponders and Bellamy doesn't respond.

"You don't have to obviously," Clarke adds, misinterpreting his silence. When she turns Bellamy is staring at nothing, an unsettling expression fixed on his face.

"Bellamy?" Clarke asks, standing up.

"Bell?" She repeats, her voice softer. This isn't the first time he's done it. Where Harper wakes up screaming, or Raven flinches at sudden movements, Bellamy will go completely still, as if he is somewhere else.

When he returns from wherever his head had taken him, Clarke is standing right in front of him with a worried expression.

"You back?" She asks him and he nods.

"Yeah."

She still looked worried so he moved past the conversation, "So, herb-trip then, Princess?"

Clarke's favorite days are the ones where the camp has little or no work to be done. On those days, the camp would spend the afternoon in the lake and Clarke would either join them or draw from the shore.

Life here is good. Her people are home and safe and healing. Harper's night terrors fade, as do Bellamy's moments of eery silence. Clarke visits her mom and Polis, and in time Octavia becomes a close friend.

Clarke is happy, and so is everyone else.

 _"You're wrong," Clarke spits out, along with a trace of blood she can taste on her lips._

 _ALIE's look has become hard and verged more on irritation than calculating._

 _"Have a world where the bombs never dropped." ALIE shoots back and Clarke's eyes pop open to see doctors and nurses bustling about._


	6. The Bombs Never Drop

The trauma center of the hospital was alive with the hustle and bustle of the staff, patients, and patient's families. As it normally was. There was something comforting about keeping busy, and for Clarke, the hospital certainly did just that.

"Clarke!" A doctor shouted and she rushed to his side.

"Help me here," he said pulling a patient's gurney along with a few nurses.

"Yes, Dr. Jackson," Clarke replied, grabbing hold of the gurney and pulling.

The patient was male and looked about her own age, he was complaining about the help but went silent when she shot him a glare. (An action Jackson was sure to chastise her for later.)

Clarke and Jackson wound up being in surgery for seven hours. Which was even worse on top of the fact that they had both been at work for nearly twelve hours previously. But the effort was not fruitless. The patient, John Murphy, would be okay for now, assuming there were no further complications.

"A heart attack at his age," Clarke gawked, "Should I have the lab run a test for a cholesterol buildup?" Jackson nodded.

"That and plaque in the arteries."

Later that night, Clarke returned to her apartment exhausted. She dragged her feet up the stairs to the second floor and was surprised to see her neighbor and some girl also up so late in the night.

"Sorry guys," Clarke said when they stopped making out as she approached.

"No worries, Clarke," her neighbor responded, his girl's expression said otherwise. Though, they could have gone inside his apartment if they wanted privacy, Clarke though as she unlocked her door.

"Night Bellamy," She called, shutting the door behind her.

Waking up early after a late night is difficult. But there was no use in sleeping in and wasting the morning away. Rarely did Clarke have time for herself, but a morning run gave that to her. A time to wake up, and enjoy being alone.

The running itself Clarke was not particularly excited for. But she found that the activity did somewhat improve her attitude and health.

A jumpstart to her day, if you will. Turns out she would really need it, for when she got to work. The patient Clarke and Jackson had worked on last night was awake and aware. Clarke learned his name was John Murphy and he was 23 years old. His dad was with him, and Jackson had to explain to both John and his father that John Murphy had early-onset coronary artery disease.

"Hold on," Mr. Murphy cut Jackson off mid-sentence, "CAD, I know the disease, my grandmother had it. She was seventy-six for heaven's sake!" It took a while to explain, but John didn't say a word the entire time. Either from shock or just being too tired, Clarke was not sure.

Fortunately for Clarke, lunch would bring a distraction from the terrible situation.

"Thank you," Clarke said when her girlfriend brought her a sub sandwich.

"Mhmm," Lexa hummed, chewing around a mouthful of her own lunch.

"I feel like I haven't seen you in forever, so I figured I'd surprise you," Lexa told Clarke after she had swallowed.

Clarke grinned, "You are amazing, what did I do to deserve you?" To which Lexa shrugged.

"Not that I am not fully enjoying our lunch date, but," Clarke added, "But I was hoping you would accompany me to dinner Thursday night?"

Lexa frowned, "Thursday?"

"Yeah, I am scheduled to get off early Thursday. What do you think?"

Lexa chewed her lip, obviously stuck on the decision.

"Unless you want to find another time?" Clarke offered, and Lexa nodded.

"Yes, yeah that might be for the best. I told someone at the firm I would accompany them on a work-dining."

Clarke nodded slowly, "Okay, we'll just find another time then."

"Maybe next week," Lexa offered.

Clarke's days seemed to blur together. Most of them were spent on long shifts at the hospital and each day felt the same, a continuous round of work and sleep. The routine interrupted only by a few occasions. Her favorite days were those that started with a morning run or ended with an evening date with her girlfriend Lexa, though dates were difficult to plan with the conflicting work hours.

On long weekends, which were few and far between, Clarke would visit her parents who had moved across the states to allow her mother to follow her ever-growing surgical career.

Routine did not bother Clarke. The lull of blurred days did not push her to look for more adventure. Really, her only complaint would be that she did not have time enough to spend with her girlfriend or other friends. Her busy working hours drove Lexa just a bit crazy even if she would never admit it.

Aside from that minor caveat, Clarke was content.

The main frustration in her work right now was John Murphy. The heart patient had grown to become wearisome and just altogether rude.

"Good morning," Clarke would greet him.

"Screw you," would be his response.

It seemed any interaction with the brooding man was bound to leave Clarke feeling put-off. She was not the only one. Nurses hushed complaints about him all the time, as did other patients until John was given his own room. Yes, John Murphy had become a disagreeable man indeed.

"If he keeps going on this way," Jackson told Clarke, "his health is going to drop with his attitude."

But neither Jackson's words nor Clarke's were able to persuade John from acting like he did.

Clarke tried to keep John from bothering her. Though she usually ended up complaining about him to either Lexa or Raven, Clarke's closest friend.

"He just says things to get a rise out of anyone he can," Raven told Clarke one night when they went out for drinks.

"It's a defensive thing, he's really just scared about his condition."

"Well he could at least try being nice to the other patients," Clarke grumbled and Raven chuckled.

"You can not blame him, I'm sure you would be an infuriating patient yourself," Raven mused.

They sat for a second before Raven reopened her mouth.

"Where is Lexa tonight?" Clarke shrugged, looking down at her drink swirling in her cup.

"I'm not sure," Clarke admitted, "something about a dinner-outing again."

"That is exciting for her," Raven spoke and Clarke nodded to agree.

"Yeah, she seems pretty up about it."

"Sorry," Raven said. Clarke didn't respond.

Lexa had been getting busier and busier as of late. That is something Clarke could not be annoyed over, after all, her working hours were ridiculous. But she couldn't name the last time she'd had a night out with her girlfriend, and it did not seem to wear on Lexa as much as it did Clarke. She was actually hoping to catch a date with Lexa tonight, even made reservations, but Lexa canceled last minute, suggesting Clarke take Raven out instead.

Fortunately for Clarke, Raven would not let her drink herself into oblivion, instead they cut the drinking short and went to Clarke's place to watch a movie.

"Thanks, Raven," Clarke said when a cab picked her up.

"No problem, Clarke," she smiled.

"Text me when you get home!"

At work, John Murphy's condition and attitude seem to exponentially decrease.

"Why even bother?" He asked Clarke when she checked him and fixed up his I.V. bag.

"Sorry?" Clarke asked and he scowled.

"I said, why even bother?"

"What do you mean? Bother with the bag?" Clarke asked.

"Any of it? Drawing blood, checking vitals, pumping me full of meds, I am not getting any better!" John was getting annoyed, that much was obvious.

"John, we are waiting to hear back about getting you a heart," Clarke reasoned.

"From someone else's dead body," John snorted, "Right, like that is in anyway just or fair."

Clarke didn't respond, what could she even say at this point?

"I'm tired, Dr. Griffin. I am exhausted of all this bullcrap. I am tired."

This was not John's usual negative comments or harsh tone. Maybe that is what worried Clarke so much, he meant this. She made a mental note to inform Jackson.

One familiar sight in Clarke's mornings was her neighbor's recent conquests sneaking out before dawn. She caught plenty doing the walk of shame, and he knew she saw them.

Clarke had even seen one that morning, before her run. The girl was pretty, no doubt about that, and Clarke felt bad for her, having to walk home in heels. She'd let the girl call a cab on her cell before heading out on her run.

When she returned Bellamy was leaving his apartment.

"You look awful," he told her frankly and she shrugged. Clarke knew that she was not a pretty sight after running. She could feel her face flushed and sweaty. Her hair was no doubt sticking up in a funny manner.

"It's good for you," Clarke told him and he raised an eyebrow.

"Let me know if you ever want to try it," but he just laughs, shaking his head.

"I'll take your word for it. I'd much rather lift, and you go too early," Bellamy responded.

The rest of the day was not bad. John was his typical self, but Jackson had let Clarke assist him in fixing some little girl's heart. The tiny thing had been born with a fault and for Jackson, it was a simple fix, but for Clarke it was spectacular. It put her in a much better mood.

That night, she was ecstatic to see Lexa show up at her doorstep.

"Hey Clarke," Lexa said when she opened the door.

"Lexa!" Clarke cheered wrapping her arms around Lexa's shoulders, "Oh, gods, I missed you."

She pulled Lexa in excitedly still talking, pulling out a wine.

"Here, relax, I'll get something whipped up in the kitchen," Clarke demanded.

Never one for cooking, Clarke eventually wound up ordering a pizza but that was alright. The two spent the night talking and mostly ignoring the movie, ending up making out at some point.

A good day all around, definitely.

The next day had an even better start. Halfway through the day, Jackson pages her and she finds out U.N.C. has a match for John Murphy.

Clarke can barely contain herself when Jackson lets her tell John and it's the first time she sees him smile, and it is big and wide and brilliant. His dad even cries when he hears the news.

"You'll have to stay off fluids before the surgery and I have tons of risks I have to go over with you but this is it," Clarke adds, grinning. John's dad hears none of this but John is nodding vigorously.

"Hell, I'll do whatever you want, I'm getting a new heart." The hospital that has the heart is a three-hour flight away, and Jackson lets Clarke come out with him.

They extract the heart, bring it home in ice and Clarke even sneaks a picture with her cell to show John.

"No shiz," he gawks at the picture and then he is put under.

Upon further inspection of the heart, Clarke's heart drops in the pit of her stomach.

"Jackson," she says, and he looks up startled at the strange tone in her voice.

"Dr. Griffin?" Instead of answering, she uses an instrument to point to where an odd bulge is protruding from the heart. Jackson's lips purse and he orders an intern to take a piece of the abscess to the lab. But Clarke already knows what Jackson is not saying.

Clarke steels herself when she walks in. Masking any despair when she explains to John the situation.

"So no heart," John clarifies and Clarke nods.

"The heart had a tumor, and we found it to be cancerous, so no heart."

Jackson tells John that U.N.C. will be putting him back on the list for a new heart, but Clarke can already see the that John has checked out of the conversation.

Clarke has a weekend to herself and as much as she wants to spend it drinking and doing nothing more, she flys out to visit her mom and dad.

It is a nice getaway. They live close enough to the beach that Clarke runs along it early in the mornings. It is much harder, running in sand, even if she does it barefoot and along the waterline. Still, the action clears her head.

She watches soccer with her dad and his buddy, Theolonius Jaha, as well as his kid, a guy Clarke's own age, named Wells.

Clarke likes Wells well enough. She spends an afternoon talking to him while their parents visit. They even play a round of chess. She wins, but Clarke is suspicious that he let her.

In the evening Clarke talks to her mom, about work, about Lexa, and Abigail tells Clarke about her own life and career.

Abigail does her best to persuade Clarke to stay and transfer to a hospital close by so as to visit more often. It was nice to catch up, but Clarke returns home after two days on the beach.

It is gradual, but John Murphy gets worse. Not just health-wise, as he now had an implanted pacemaker, but emotionally too.

He gets so bad, that the nurses dread going to his room as he all but harasses them. It was horrible. No longer was John Murphy a 'disagreeable' person. John twisted and morphed into someone ugly and furious. He was now someone people avoided to keep from enduring his crude comments or gross remarks. No one wanted to say anything because who could blame him? So Jackson tolerated him and Clarke did her best to keep her mouth shut.

Things were better outside of work. John was kept off her mind and replaced by Lexa, who had found at least once a week to spend time with Clarke. Sometimes more.

Raven and Clarke went to lunch once a week, Lexa even joins them a few times, as does Wick, Raven's new beau.

Clarke cannot seem to catch a break, however, because she gets home on a Saturday after lunch and her apartment is sweltering hot. The air conditioner is down.

Damn, she thinks.

Trying to decide what to do, Clarke sits against her front door and call Lexa. But her girlfriend doesn't pick up, and Clarke is not going to call Raven, as she has been bunking with Wick.

She is about to resign herself to the heat when Bellamy opens his door and sees her sitting there.

"Hey Clarke," Bellamy greeted her and she tilted her head to peer up at him.

"Heya Bellamy."

He shuts his door and sits down against it, facing her.

"Whatcha up to?" He asks and she sighs.

"My A.C. is broke. It's cooler out here," Bellamy nods as if Clarke actions made perfect sense.

"Okay."

"What were you going to do?" Clarke asks.

"I was headed out to the grocery store." Clarke nods and pulls herself up to her feet.

"Well don't let me keep ya. I think I'm going to go inside." Bellamy holds out his arm and she pulls him to his feet.

"Let me take a look at it first," Bellamy says and Clarke lets him inside.

Within five minutes both Clarke's and Bellamy's shirts are sticking to their bodies with sweat.

"Geez, Princess, not only is your A.C. out, your apartment is trapping in heat," Clarke just shrugs, letting the odd nickname slide and not knowing what to say about his comment.

"Alright, grab some stuff, you can stay at my place."

"No, Bellamy, I am fine, honestly. I'll figure something out." But he shakes his head.

"I am sure you could, but you don't need to. I've got a fairly comfy couch."

"That is a little past 'neighborhood friendly' I am not going to impose-"

"Come on Clarke. It'll be two nights tops. You aren't imposing."

It is a ridiculous thing to do, Clarke knows. Staying with a guy she doesn't know all that well. Especially when he lived alone. But she packs and winds up sleeping on his couch.

"The A.C. guy can't come till Thursday," Clarke tells Bellamy, "I don't have to stay that long, I think I can get somewhere else to stay. A hotel or something."

"If you want, you aren't bothering me staying here," Bellamy tells her.

"Honestly I mostly don't see you aside from morning and night. So no rush."

Clarke thanks him and decides to stay. She eventually explains the situation to Lexa who finally answers her phone.

They wind up fighting. Clarke is not sure who starts it but Lexa yells about Clarke staying with a guy and Clarke defends her actions. Clarke complains about Lexa's increasingly busy schedule and that starts Lexa on a rant about Clarke's own schedule. Her fight ends when Lexa tells her she "has an early morning and needs sleep."

Her week gets worse. Tuesday follows up and John seems to be on a new search for ruining her day. Clarke is not a patient person. Nor does she have amazing bedside skills. Maybe it is her A.C. failing that eggs her on to do it, but she blows up on John. Just a bit.

"Would you shut the hell up?" She yells when he goes on and on about how they should just stop trying to help him.

Jackson comes into see John gaping at Clarke and Clarke just walks out. John does not tell Jackson, Clarke thinks because he does not chastise her. When he asks her about it, Clarke dances around the question until he drops it.

Bellamy could tell she was in a mood and did not talk to her when she got to his apartment. Which was nice of him, she thinks

Now Clarke had been kicked out of her apartment by her apartment and she was yelling at patients. Fantastic. She ranted to Raven at lunch on Wednesday which helped a little.

But the universe must have been in a mood too.

Lexa knocked on Bellamy's door and she and Clarke talked outside in the hall.

"I have something to tell you," Lexa says and from her tone alone, Clarke freezes in place.

"If this is about the fight, Lexa I am sorry, I should be more understanding about your hours I know you work hard and I know you are so understanding about my own hours and-" Lexa shakes her head.

"No this isn't about that," She pauses, eyes anywhere but Clarke.

"I never meant to hurt you, Clarke. I love you, you have to know that first." Lexa then goes on to tell Clarke about the first night it happened.

"I met her through all those work diners I was going to last month. After a while I wasn't going to work dinners, I was going to see her." Clarke doesn't say a word and Lexa continues.

"The first night it happened, Clarke, I felt so guilty. So, so, guilty. I came here after, to you.

"The night you popped up out of the blue. We had wine, watched a movie," Clarke croaks and Lexa nods.

"That was going to be it. I was going to stop," Lexa says, but Clarke isn't listening anymore.

When Lexa finishes speaking and is just standing there crying, Clarke mutters: "I need some time, to think about all of this."

She goes back to Bellamy's place. She walks straight past him and into his apartment bathroom.

Once her face is dry and all that is left of her crying is red eyes, she steps back out.

Bellamy is standing in the kitchen adjacent to the bathroom, and he is in an apron.

"Pasta?" He says and points to the bar of the kitchen.

"Have a seat."

He hands her a plate full of pasta and chicken breast and neither say anything about Lexa or Clarke's crying.

Afterward, he pulls up some cable show and they fall asleep on the couch making fun of the poor plot and acting.

Thursday the A.C. guy tells her he can have someone fix it Saturday morning.

Friday, Clarke blows up on John Murphy, completely.

Jackson had to rush into John's room to see Clarke red in the face, screeching at John who was shouting just as loud, if not more so.

"Clarke!" Jackson bellowed over the screaming match and both Clarke and John shut their mouths. They glared at one another until Jackson sent her out of the room, his expression murderous.

After being chewed out and extensively punished, Clarke was left to do scut and told not to go near John's entire floor.

Eventually, Clarke's apartment is fixed and she goes home. Eventually, the apartment is fixed up and she leaves Bellamy's couch. Clarke can not thank him enough and even gets him two movie gift cards.

"For you and one of your conquests," she tells him and he laughs.

As for John, the staff sees an immediate difference after Clarke's screaming match.

Rather than harassing the nurses he lets them do their job. He does not glare when Jackson steps into the room, and he stops all negative comments. In fact, Jackson is shocked to see, he smiles at a nurse when she helps him. It is quick but it is there. Later he hears John say "Thank you," when Jackson finishes their routine morning checkup.

"Whatever you said to him struck home I guess," Jackson admits to Clarke and she is taken off probation. She still is not allowed near his room, but she is not stuck doing scut either and that is enough for her.

Then John starts asking for her and Jackson has to give him excuses, such as 'She's in surgery,' 'she's at the trauma center,' 'she has another patient.'

"Doc?" John asks during a blood draw.

"Hm?"

"Where is Dr. Griffin?" John asked, and Jackson gave him a long look.

"Dr. Griffin is no longer on my service," Jackson explained, considering John's expression.

"Oh."

"Yeah," Jackson finished up in silence and turned to leave.

The following week, John asks for her everyday and Jackson gives in.

"Hey Murphy," Clarke greets him, stepping through the doorway

"Heya Dr. Griffin," John greets her.

"How has Jackson been treating you?" Clarke asks, and Jackson listens as John gives Clarke a rundown on his medical care, how his dad is handling it, and how he is handling all of it. It is more than John has spoken in months.

Needless to say, Clarke would be staying on Jackson's service.

In the following couple of months, Clarke comes to more than endure her world. She enjoys it. She keeps up lunch with Raven once a week and Raven gets her out on a few dates.

Clarke visits her parents and is pleased to see Wells again. Work goes a lot smoother now that John has changed his attitude. Clarke still catches him on a bad day now and then, but they are fewer and farther between the good ones. He takes to flirting with Clarke for jest and she does not mind. Some days she does it back.

 _"Morning, Dr. Jackson," Clarke greeted him and was given a nod in response. She fell into step with him and the two began their rounds._

 _"I've contacted U.N.C. several times to discuss getting John another heart, but for now there isn't a match," Clarke spoke and Jackson's expression was grim._

 _"If that boy doesn't get one soon his condition is going to get much worse," He said in a hushed tone, knocking on John's door before entering._

 _Both Clarke and Jackson step into the room and are rewarded with a groan and a muttered: "Unless you've brought me a shiny new organ, you should have let me sleep in longer."_

 _Clarke chuckles walks around the bed to check his I.V. bag and vitals. As she does so, John sits up._

 _"Aw, come on Doc, you brought Dr. Griffin? My hair is a mess," John joked and Clarke smiled._

 _"Morning, Murphy."_

 _"I've been dying to see the new movie by Christopher Nolan," John tells Clarke, ignoring Jackson as he sticks a needle in John's inner elbow._

 _"Oh?" Clarke responds and John nods._

 _"Would Friday night work for you?" He asks and Clarke purses her lips._

 _"This Friday night?" Clarke clarifies, "I'll have to think about it."_

 _John gives Jackson an exasperated look and sighs._

 _"Never a straight answer," Jackson raises an eyebrow and tells Clarke she'd better stop leading John on or say yes._

In the midst of those months, Bellamy shows up at her door. It's early in the morning and she is pulling her sneakers on when a soft rap on the door pulls her attention. Clarke opens the door and Bellamy is standing in athletic shoes and clothes.

"Mind if I join?" He asks and she is glad for the company. She doesn't ask why he suddenly has an interest in the activity, or why she stops seeing random girls leaving his apartment.

The two become closer through the morning routine.

Life is bound to throw another curveball. That is just the way things are and Clarke is almost not surprised when it happens.

U.N.C. finds another heart for John. Jackson and Clarke do not tell him yet until they can check on it and know for sure. It is a good thing too because when they go to pick it up, U.N.C. calls Jackson about a younger girl who has just been in an accident. She goes to the top of the list for the heart and John is denied a second one.

John Murphy's dad is arrested the following week. Clarke is not certain of the details, but whatever John's dad had done was enough to get him a few months house arrest. John takes it hard, Clarke can tell, but he works to hide it.

It is a hard thing to get irritated over, someone else needing a heart. The other patient had a family, and friends, and a life, Clarke reminded herself; but so did John, and he'd been waiting months, almost a whole year.

"I'll come and check up on you later," Dr. Jackson tells John who turns to Clarke.

"I expect a yes when you return," he tells her.

"I told you I'd think about it, Murphy," she says backing out of the room.

"You do that," John responds, winking at her.

Clarke tells Raven about her situation with Lexa. Raven mostly listens and when Clarke is done, she comes to the conclusion she needs to end it, completely. She meets Lexa in person, and neither of them cries. It is weird, both just accept what is happening and walk away. Regardless Clarke can feel a weight in the pit of her stomach.

"Shoot, Dr. Griffin, you look awful," John says and she lets out a startled laugh at the insult.

"No, I mean it, what has got you down?" John asks and Clarke shakes it off.

"Aw nothing, Murphy," he looks suspicious but soon the look is replaced by one that is mischevious.

Clarke sees the switch in his demeanor and notices the sly smile.

"Murphy?"

"Did you think about it?" It takes her a second by realization dawns on her, she chuckles but it stops as soon as it starts.

"Tell you what, you get a new ticker, and I'll go see any movie you want."

John grins, "Hear that Doc?" Jackson steps into John's room, "Dr. Griffin's agreed to go on a date!"

Jackson turns eyebrows up, to look at Clarke.

"Has she now?" Clarke just shrugs.

Three days later, Clarke's cell vibrates when she is with Raven at lunch.

"Dr. Griffin here, who is this?"

"Clarke, we've got a heart. A viable one." Clarke goes in even though it is her day off.

It goes all too easy, the surgery and the recovery, but Clarke is not about to question a good thing. John goes back to school to get his bachelor's (after a movie date with Clarke) and he keeps in touch.

Life goes on and it is good.

Clarke goes to lunch with Raven, and she is the maid of honor at the wedding. (She threatens Wick but he knows it is in jest.)

She has the occasional date with one John Murphy. And even helps him pick out a ring when he finds a woman named 'Emori.'

She meets more people. Dates a woman named Niylah, and a man named Roan.

She runs with Bellamy and complains about the dates that are terrible. He laughs and tells her: "Maybe you're the problem, not your dates," Clarke glares but he just laughs.

They end up lifting at the gym on days they decide not to run. It turns to lifting twice a week and running all other days. Except for the week, Bellamy's sister comes into town. Clarke meets his sister, Octavia, who winds up being a great friend.

She marries Wells, and he moves out with her, they buy a house and get a dog, they hold barbeques for their friends and neighbors. Octavia brings Lincoln and Bellamy brings Gina. Raven and Wick's kid adores the dog, and the get new neighbors: Maya and Jasper, Monty and Harper, Brian and Nate.

They grow old together, all of them.

 _"It is not real," Clarke sobs, "This is not real." ALIE stares for a moment, and Clarke wonders if that is anger she feels rolling off the A.I's shoulders. Can A.L.I.E. experience anger? Her thought is brushed away when A.L.I.E. speaks._

 _"You want reality?"_

 _Clarke opens her eyes to see she is not on Earth. But in space. She is on a ship, staring through a glass window at Earth, miles away._

 _"Commander," a voice calls and she turns to A.L.I.E. but it is not the A.I, "I'm glad you made it."_

 _"You're Becca Praimheda."_

 _"Becca's fine," the woman nods._

 _"There is not much time, the code is nearly updated. You need to operate the kill switch." Becca tells her, and turns to walk towards a table in the center of the ship, Clarke follows._

 _"This is it."_

 _Immediately Clarke's hand reaches for it only to stop when a voice calls out, "If you pull that, you will be killing everyone. See for yourself."_

 _A.L.I.E. steps up to the window Clarke had woken up in front of._

 _"The nuclear power plants that were destroyed by the bombs have begun to melt down."_

 _Horrified, Clarke looks down to where she can already see spots of her home, burning._

 _"My drones detected the first of them four months ago," A.L.I.E. explains, "There are more than a dozen at-risk plants around the world. Seven currently burning. Global radiation levels are already rising. By my calculations, in less than six months 96% of Earth's surface will be uninhabitable. Even for those born in space."_

 _Clarke turns to face the woman in red as she continues on._

 _"So you see, The City of Light is the only thing that can save you."_

 _Clarke's next words are broken: "You can't know that."_

 _A.L.I.E. does not respond. Instead, Clarke is launched into another world._


	7. Reality

**Trigger warning, brief mention of suicide.**

 **Reality- to clarify, Clarke does not remember A.L.I.E. telling her of Praimfaya**

Clarke wakes to groans of pain from several people, as well as a woman wailing. Her memories flash through her head and she can remember every world. But they blur together and she cannot focus on any one memory. It is dizzying and disorienting trying to focus on those memories so instead, she tries to focus on the present.

Her mom is in front of her. Abby's expression is one of relief and Clarke hears her say, "You did it." The words are reassuring, and Clarke can feel herself nod.

The mother-daughter moment is interrupted by Murphy who Clarke notices, has a hand inside Ontari's chest.

"We need to remove the flame," Clarke directs. Her mom moves towards her side and Clarke mutters the command in Trigedasleng. A tugging sensation rips through her upper spine and into the base of her skull, she groans but stops once Abby holds her hand tightly, placing the Flame in her palm. Clarke turns to see Murphy who is pulling a bloody black hand out of Ontari's chest.

"Thank you," Clarke says earnestly. She is met with an imperceptible nod before Murphy's expression molds into a rueful smile.

"Just another day on the ground, right?"

He turns away to when Emori calls out his name.

Clarke surveys the scene before her. Jaha is on the ground, Nathan is falling into Brian's arms, and Markus is on his knees weeping. Abigail must see this before Clarke does because she is looking at him with a worried expression.

"Go to him," Clarke tells her mom, "I'm ok."

Clarke watches as Abigail puts her hand on the broken man's shoulder.

Bellamy stumbles his way over to Clarke. When he reaches he holds her forearm so she can stand.

"A.L.I.E. is gone," Clarke states.

"Yeah, I figured," Clarke looks up at him, and it is the first time it really hits her. A.L.I.E. is gone.

Relief flushes through her entire body and she wraps her arms around Bellamy, all but collapsing into a hug.

The embrace is cut short when they hear Pike gasp. Bellamy and Clarke whip around to see Octavia's sword completely through Pike before pulling out. The room is silent as it watches Pike's body crumple to the ground. Octavia stares at him until he has exhaled his last breath and then she leaves without a word, the room left to gawk at her retreating form.

* * *

The following two days are a messy business. With Jaha's help, Octavia is snuck into the tower, then by feigning surrender Bellamy is able to distract Echo long enough that Octavia kills the guards and healer, allowing Clarke and Abigail save Roan.

Unfortunately, Skaikru is thrown into prison by Roan. But the following morning Azgeda guards escort Clarke to the throne room where she barters for Skaikru's freedom. She offers the Flame in exchange for their release, as well as Roan's promise to honor Lexa's coalition. It is a long shot, but he accepts. (Much to Clarke's surprise and relief, for a moment she considered him killing her and taking the Flame from her cold, dead fingers.)

Abigail, Markus, and Octavia stay behind in Polis. They stay to ensure that Azgeda honors the coalition, while the rest of Skaikru marches home.

Life picks itself back up at Arkadia. It is almost like the days of the delinquent's camp. Rotating hunting, foraging, guarding, and any other chores the camp requires.

A few people have permanently assigned jobs. Monty is on crops, Raven is on maintenance, Clarke is in the med bay. There is a lull to staying put in the med bay, but Clarke finds it comforting, not having a looming threat over her head. She even takes the time to visit and have meals with her friends.

On occasion, memories of Clarke's alternate realities surface and blur with her memories of this real world. Some evenings Clarke is eating with her friends, but her mind wanders. She finds herself remembering her married life with Wells or her nomadic life in Hodneskru. Those memories slip away and she is launched back into the present by Monty's voice.

"Clarke? What do you think?" Raven, Bellamy, and Monty are looking at her expectantly.

"Sorry, I missed that, daydreaming I guess," Clarke tells him, and he catches her up on the conversation.

Her memories do that to her. Some days she remembers nothing, other days they overwhelm her.

Raven is the first to call her out on it, then Bellamy. She tells them both it is nothing she cannot handle but she sees their worried looks after she resurfaces from a memory.

It is something she can handle, it is just... Sometimes she sees Jasper, and she pictures Maya next to him slipping flowers into her braided hair. Or sometimes Clarke sees Harper and Monty talking and she remembers them attending her barbecues.

Bellamy seems to notice when it happens the most, probably because they are together the bulk of the day. (When Clarke is not in the med bay.) When they are alone he just waits for her to come back to him. When they are in groups, he pulls her back discretely by rubbing circles over her thumb.

Clarke tries to not let her friends notice how odd it is to be around them. She knows them differently now. Having kissed Bellamy, having met Octavia's child, having seen Maya and Jasper together. Only, _it never happened_ , Clarke reminds herself. Sometimes she succeeds.

* * *

Crops are started and Raven figures out a system for improving water flow.

Bellamy leads a trip to collect a Hydro-generator from Farm Station. Clarke is not exactly happy that he is leaving, especially for something in Ice Nation, especially when they had no pressing need for the water machine. But Raven insists and Brian, Nathan, and a few others accompany Bellamy.

While he is gone, Clarke fills her day with as much work as she can to avoid worrying. And to keep from disappearing into her memories. She directs the camp to reinforce the camp walls and leads hunting trips. Clarke returns from one hunting trip to see her mother and Markus have returned from Polis, the throne having been secured by Roan.

One night Raven finds Clarke outside of the Ark.

"Holy crow, Clarke. It is too cold out here, what are you doing?"

Clarke doesn't respond but Raven notices tear tracks on Clarke's face. She's been _crying._

"Clarke?" Raven asks in a soft voice, "are you okay?"

Raven listens while Clarke tells Raven she misses Kida and Binns, Holly, and Vaego and Mokoli'i. Everone, all of Hodneskru. Clarke misses the nomads so much it _hurts._

Raven does not know what to say to comfort Clarke.

"But Clarke, not of that is real. This is real, you and me," Raven takes Clarke's hand in her own, "This is reality."

As much as Clarke tells her that, as much as she tries to understand that, she cannot forget the other worlds. The other people. Those had felt just as real as this one.

* * *

When Bellamy returns he doesn't have the hydro generator. Instead, he has several members of Farm Station and Raven is irritated about the hydro-generator being blown up. But no one can blame Bellamy. In a choice between the people and a generator for crops, they would all make the same decision.

"I am not sacrificing anymore innocent lives," Bellamy declares when Raven sees the empty truck bed. Raven purses her lips but says nothing. It was the right call.

Rather than joining the guards or hunting parties, Bellamy follows Clarke to the med bay where she tends to the new arrivals. Most of them are malnourished, but healthy aside from that. Several have bruises from the poor treatment. The few who have major injuries take up all of Clarke's day. Bellamy takes it upon himself to bring her food at some point and Abigail orders Clarke to take a couple minutes to eat.

"Thank you," Clarke accepts the meat from Bellamy.

"No problem, Princess."They talk for a while, and when they finish Clarke has to restrain herself from kissing him. It was such a casual thing to do in another life. It is something she cannot do here.

Bellamy is not the only one who she has to watch herself around.

Every once in a while Clarke flirts teasingly with Murphy and he gives her an odd look. She calls him John because she has grown used to it, and Clarke has to be careful not to mention his marriage to Emori. Because it is not real, she reminds herself.

* * *

A month passes since A.L.I.E.

Routine becomes Clarke companion and she enjoys the lull that comes with work. Mostly Clarke deals with injuries sustained in camp, alongside Jackson and Abigail. Raven works on improving life in the Ark, she even gets some electricity going from the Ark's solar panels. Monty gets crops thriving alongside Harper and everyone celebrates with a bonfire.

Clarke smiles as her people dance around the fire. When she sees Octavia grinning from the opposite side of the flames she is launched into memories of a different celebration. One where the hundred are celebrating Lincoln and Octavia's baby Willow.

She is pulled back to Arkadia by Bellamy. The pad of his thumb traces circles over the back of her hand. Clarke has to keep from slipping her arm around his waist.

"I never had this," Bellamy speaks and Clarke waits for him to explain.

"This carefree lifestyle. Even on the Ark I was worrying about Octavia and my mother everyday," he looks down into Clarke's eyes.

"I hope we don't lose this," and Clarke turns to look at her people. Jasper laughing obnoxiously, Harper grinning at Monty, even Abigail and Kane quietly enjoying one another's presence.

"Me too," Clarke whispers, looking back up at Bellamy.

In this world they are partners. They love each other, but not in the way they had in another world. Clarke misses Bellamy, even though he is right beside her. She misses the Bellamy who was her partner in a romantic sense of the word. But she is grateful for this Bellamy, the companion who understood her and centered her. Who forgave her and who needed her forgiveness.

* * *

Two months after A.L.I.E. hunting parties are finding less and less food. Skaikru starts to ration to two meals a day, but no one can figure out why animals are becoming more and more scarce.

Until Nyko brings patients to see Abigail.

Abby, Nyko, Clarke, and Raven rush Luna and her people (or what is left of them) into the med bay.

"Mom, what is this?" Clarke asks baffled.

"Fever, lesions, vomiting," Abby lists, "It's ARS."

"What's ARS?" Bellamy asks, having stepped into the med bay behind Clarke.

"Acute Radiation Sickness," Abby explains, before turning to Luna.

"When did the symptoms start?"

"Not sure. Right before the fish started dying."

"The fish are dying?" Raven speaks out.

Nyko nods, "Floating on the sea to the horizon. In every direction."

Jackson and Abigail decide the infection is internal, not contagious, and deadly. The outbreaks all appear to be from irradiated fish. The only problem is, everyone is at a loss as to how the fish are suffering from radiation.

"This is all that is left of my people," Luna tells Clarke, "Can you save them?"

"We'll do everything we can, you have my word," Clarke promises.

She steps back and Bellamy tells her Raven is asking for the both of them.

"So Luna's rig is here," Raven shows them on a screen once they find her.

"If these waters are dying, for whatever reason, then we're screwed. Food is hard enough to find right now with the animal count dropping every day."

Abigail and Jackson use up the radiation medicine on Luna's people, but only two make it. The youngest to die is a boy who reminds Clarke of Kavin from Hodneskru. _Not real_ , Clarke scolds herself.

"What do you think it is?" Bellamy asks her as the two head out on a hunting trip.

"Not a clue. Hopefully Raven figures it out," Clarke replies.

Later after all they have managed to get is one deer, Bellamy catches Clarke zoned out.

It takes a minute or two before she blinks rapidly and focuses her eyes on Bellamy.

"Where did you go?" Bellamy questions.

"A waterfall," is her vague answer.

Normally he would just drop the subject, but there is no one around, so he pushes for more details: "A waterfall?"

"Just another trip," Clarke recounts, "you were with me. We were foraging." Bellamy sees her face turn pink and she looks anywhere but at him.

"Do you miss those worlds? Do you wish you had chosen one of them?" Bellamy asks her. She slows her pace until she stops and she looks over to him.

"I miss-" She trails off.

"I miss the people," Clarke begins again, looking past the tree line, "I miss-" She stops and gives him an odd look.

"I have known several versions of the people here. I have had different relation- _friend_ ships," Clarke corrects herself, "with all of my friends. Sometimes I miss the other yous and Ravens and Octavias, the other versions of you that is."

Bellamy nods and Clarke goes on.

"They were all like you, I mean-" Her eyebrows furrow as she tries to find a way to explain.

"Any other version of you, any other Bellamy, still had the same ideals and habits that you have. For the most part you are the same. But the relationship I had with you would be slightly different. in some words Raven was my closest friend, in one world John- well, Murphy, was a great friend. In another you were- more." Clarke tells him.

After that she drops the subject. Bellamy is left to wonder what Clarke meant by _more._

* * *

When the pair return to Arkadia, Raven tells them she knows what the sickness is.

"I poked around some of the code that A.L.I.E. left behind. She had been running diagnostics on old nuclear power plants.

"So?" Bellamy asks and Raven looks down.

"A.L.I.E. created The City of Light because she knew the human race only had months to live," Raven takes a shaky breath before muttering, "Welcome to Praimfaya."

"How much time?" Bellamy asks, his voice cracking on the last word.

"A month."

The first thing Clarke does is tell everyone. When Clarke informs Skaikru, most everyone is devastated. That is, those who came down on the Ark are devastated. Those who came in the drop-ship seem to have seen it coming. It hurts Clarke to see how almost immediately her people _accept_ their fate.

"I guess we were all just waiting for the other show to drop," Jasper tells Clarke, "I mean, how long could a good thing like this last?" He asks, gesturing to the camp around them.

The following day, the rain is black and burns to the touch.

"Everybody in the drop-ship, RIGHT NOW!" Kane bellows. The camp goes ballistic, people sprint to the door and scream as they do so.

The alarm blares and Clarke is crushed in the crowd of people running for the Ark. Someone grabs hold of her shoulder and she falls to the ground. When she tries to frantically pull herself off the ground someone steps on her shoulder and she crashes back into the mud. Seconds later a hand is wrapped around her shoulder, yanking her up to stand. They file in through the doors and slam the doors shut behind them. The hand around her shoulder drops and Clarke turns to see Bellamy who then pushes her towards a barrel of water. All around them her people are frantically ripping off their clothing and washing the acid rain from their skin.

After the rain subsides, Jaha calls a general meeting. He tells the people that he has found what he believes is a doomsday bunker.

"Those who wish to come with me, pack now. I leave in one hour, anyone is welcome to follow."

Most follow Jaha, only a few stay behind. Including Jasper, Haper, and Monty.

* * *

During the trek to the supposed bunker, Clarke is kept busy treating radiation burns and symptoms. Along the way, over half of her people pass away. The radiation in the air alone is enough to burn their throats. Several die from swollen throats or lungs, incapable of breathing in. Eric Jackson, Brian, Abby, and Kane among them.

"I can't- I can't- I can't-" Clarke moans over and over, weeping and hugging her mom.

"Clarke, she's gone." Raven states, but it is as if Clarke hasn't heard her. Jaha tells her they must keep moving, as does Bellamy. Clarke does not move an inch, but when Bellamy moves to pick her up, she does not resist, and she sobs as he puts her in the rover.

They do find the bunker. At the same house Jaha said it would be at, and they have to use the rover to pop it open.

Only to find hundreds of dead bodies inside. Jaha was wrong. And it is too late.

Octavia screams in the cavern and it echoes.

The following day most everyone dies. Nathan, Jaha, Murphy, Emori, Octavia; Bellamy is too sick to be awake when his sister passes. For some cruel joke or twist of fate, Clarke is the last. She watches, helpless as the human race disappears before them.

She waits until the last person is gone.

A single shot echoes through the Ark as the last human being on earth falls to the ground, gun in hand.


	8. Kill Switch

Clarke is back in Becca's lab.

"I am telling the truth, Clarke. This is the only way."

"If it is true, why tell us now?" Clarke asks, her voice cracking, "Why not use this to let people choose the City of Light, rather than torture them into taking the chip?"

A.L.I.E. looks to Becca Praimheda and explains, "The last time I warned my creator of a threat to human survival, she chose to lock me away and came here to work on my replacement."

"Define "Perverse Instantiation," is Becca's only response.

Immediately A.L.I.E. reports: "Perverse Instantiation- the implementation of a benign final goal through deleterious methods unforeseen by a human programmer." Becca nods at A.L.I.E.'s definition.

"Like killing six-and-a-half billion people, to solve overpopulation. The goal isn't everything, A.L.I.E. How you reach the goal matters too. I am sorry I did not teach you that." Becca's gaze turns from A.L.I.E.'s to Clarke's.

"It's now or never, Clarke. Once A.L.I.E.'s upgraded I won't be able to help you anymore."

"But I will," A.L.I.E jumps in, "In the City of Light."

Clarke faces A.L.I.E. whose expression is comforting.

"You don't have to bear the burden of decisions like this one, Clarke. You don't have to live with the pain of the things you have done anymore, the lives you have taken and those you've lost."

Clarke can see them, the people she has killed. SHe sees Atom, and Caliban, several grounders whose names she cannot recall, as well as mountain men. She sees Finn, whose head drops as he thanks her for killing him. She sees those she has lost. Her father, Wells, and Lexa.

"You will be at peace," A.L.I.E. says soothingly.

It is enough to persuade Clarke for only a moment.

"You will live forever."

Clarke catches a glimpse of a perfect world. No one has died, no one knows pain, not real pain, such as loss or death. They are happy, sky people, grounders, the hundred. Everyone.

But it is not real, Clarke thinks.

"I've tried running away from my pain. It doesn't work," she tells A.L.I.E. shaking her head.

"You're people don't agree, Clarke. You heard Jasper. Even those who were coerced would still choose to stay here." A.L.I.E.'s words verge on triumphant, but Clarke still has half a mind about it.

"Give them a real choice," Clarke demands, "and I won't pull this lever. Give them back their pain, their memories. Let them decide for _themselves._ "

Becca speaks before A.L.I.E. can, "She can't. Her core command is to make life better for mankind. She still thinks she's doing that. 20 seconds and the kill switch will be gone."

"Would you really condemn the human race to die in six months?" A.L.I.E. presses.

"We'll figure something out," is Clarke's desperate response, "We always do."

"Yes, Clarke. There's still hope," Becca states.

"According to my calculations, there is not," A.L.I.E. refutes.

"10 seconds," Becca warns.

"Let me ease their pain, Clarke. We can save the human race together."

Those words make the decision for Clarke, and that is A.L.I.E.'s downfall.

"You don't ease pain," A.L.I.E. blanks at Clarke's claim, "You overcome it."

She grabs the switch and pulls, her last words ringing in her head, "And we will."


	9. Wrap Up

**ANNNNND THERE YOU HAVE IT. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR STICKING IT OUT TO THE END!**

 **Please, let me know what you think! Again, this story is based off a piece by a simple space nerd (with permission of course!) So go check them out!**

 **It was tons of fun going with this story and what I love about it is I can always come back and add a few worlds if I ever get the urge.**

 **Also, just a quick thank you to everybody who supported this story from the get-go! I loved the comments/review given and I take time to read them and consider them when I write. SO please take the time to drop a comment or two below on what I did poorly, what I should have added, what you liked, etc.**

 **Thank you!**


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